iTunes plus, I'm gonna need a bigger boat (1 Viewer)

[Sam Posten]

I don't want DRM free stuff to spread it, I want it for my own legion of devices, so the tracking info doesnt bother me one bit.

iTunes Plus: Everything you need to know - Crave at CNET UK

 

[Ted Todorov]

Adam, great summary, but incorrect in one aspect: Music Videos are going DRM free as well. Only TV shows and movies are keeping the DRM. Also those 8 million DRM free tracks didn't appear overnight -- many/most indie labels had already gone DRM free along with EMI.

So far as AAC vs. MP3 -- a friend and I did a blind listening test -- same songs encoded at 256kb MP3 vs AAC -- we were consistently able to tell which was which -- the AAC sounded better, MP3 was producing muddy low frequencies. There is no doubt that AAC is the better format, and given that it is an open format I see no conceivable reason for using MP3. Any device that doesn't support AAC in this day and age is not worthy of my consideration.

That said my music library overwhelmingly consists of Apple Lossless ripped from my CD collection anyway.

 

[Brian L]

Well, I hate to tell you this, but iTunes and iPods did not do gapless playback until an update a year or so ago. Prior to that, they did not do gapless playback. I don't think a file being AAC or MP3 or whatever had any bearing on the issue.

I always used 320K AAC and now Apple Lossless, and until that update, my iPods did not support gapless playback.

Brian

 

[ErichH]

More discussion at GIZ - ITunes: iTunes Wants $250 To Upgrade My Music Collection (Or the Deal's Off)

 

[Ted Todorov]

Gapless playback was introduced with iTunes 7 over two years ago (Sept 12, 2006 to be exact).

 

[Brian L]

Thanks Ted...could not for the life of my recall the exact date.

Brian

 

[Will_B]

In any case I wasn't referring to the playback device's ability to have gapless playback, but rather the issue is where the end of a file ends. It has to be on a specific point or else there are some zeroes (no signal) at the end of the song that creates a subtle pop. They fixed that in mp4 (aac).

Frankly it is not much of a problem since most people have their music segueing from one song to the next, which brings the volume of an mp3 down to nothing at the start and end anyway.

 

[DaveF]

I upgrade my library to Plus: that damage was $5.40. The upgrade, once started, was seamless. But iTunes was balky about that and a few other purchases. I clicked the Buy button, and it took me to my account page. I clicked the Accept button, and then nothing happened. I clicked Buy again, and then it started the downloads. I saw similar behavior for three or so purchases.

 

[Michael_K_Sr]

Looks like Apple is finally allowing upgrades on a track by track basis, instead of the shortsighted "all or nothing" approach. Glad they finally came around.

 

[Ted Todorov]

Here is the story from MacRumors