iTunes 4.5 Out Today (1 Viewer)

[Brian L]

Like MikeS, my "Check for iTunes" update still said 4.2 was current, but I was able to download from the iTunes site directly.

Maybe they just have a high server load?

I did keep the downloaded file, and will shoot it to you if you want to try that. Just send an email to [email protected]

BGL

 

[Angelo.M]

Brian:

Many thanks, but I was able to get the file.

Rock on...

 

[David Lawson]

There is a "downgrade" associated with the 4.5 update. You can now only burn seven copies of a playlist to CD, down from ten. I never use iTunes to burn a CD in the first place, though.

 

[Patrick Larkin]

Apple also tweaked the DRM to break the current array of utilities that stripped the old DRM... for a few weeks at least.

 

[AaronMK]

I would really like that, as 128 Kbps just isn't transparant. I would be making many more purchases if they offered tracks encoded using a lossless codec.

Unfortunately, I doubt this will happen for a few reasons:

1) Internet traffic costs money, and I doubt Apple wants to quadrouple its throughput.

2) I doubt Apple wants to reencode 700,000 songs (although you would hope this would be automated and trivial).

3) Most people are happy with the sound quality on their iTunes purchases.

4) When has the recording or movie industry ever been excited about pristine unprotected copies of their content being made available to consumers? Use iTunes to burn a CD from the losslessly compressed tracks and that is what you have. Funny logic cosidering that is what the CDs they release in stores are, I know, but I bet the industry wishes they could kill off CDs for that reason.

 

[Thomas Newton]

According to this CNET news story, Jobs said that the "that the burning restrictions came at the request of the music labels."

From another CNET news story that talks about record companies raising prices to online services and about their eagerness to test "tiered pricing models", there's a note that "(usage) rules may be tweaked as the record companies renegotiate their contracts with Apple."

 

[Craig S]

Boy, this is typical. Jobs & Apple showed the record industry that they CAN make money with electronic distribution, and just a year into the experiment the suits are already coming up with ways to screw it up... :rolleyes

 

[Chris Farmer]

Yeah, Jobs has stated that prices of individual tracks aren't going anywhere, but that the albums there's nothing that can be done.

 

[Neil S. Bulk]

I'd pay extra for an album if it came in the "lossless" format, maybe even $15. But I won't pay more than $10 for a single disc AAC album. It doesn't make any sense at that point. You get what you pay for, right?

They could even put all sorts of restrictions on "lossless" albums, maybe only letting you share it on one other computer and maybe even restrict the burning options further.

Neil

 

[AaronMK]

Well, that depends on how many additional restrictions they add.

Even with the $9.99 per album price now, having something locked in DRM that I have to jump through hoops to get a file that I can play in something other that iTunes (like an MP3 player besides the iPod, for example) is not worth a $2-3 difference, and that is before considering the better sound quality and other benefits of the CD.

Right now, with the heavy lossy compression and the DRM restrictions, $0.99 is about the limit of what I would feel is worth paying for a track. Make that a lossless track with the same DRM restrictions, and I'd be willing to pay $1.99 per track.