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DRM-free iTunes: A Huge Step Forward?

Jan 06, 2009  By Katherine Druckman

With today's big announcement from Apple, that by the end of Q1 2009 their 10 million songs will be available without DRM restrictions, I find myself wondering how the open source community will react.

If none of these choices fit, please share your thoughts in the comments.

DRM-free music from iTunes is the best news I've heard all week
16% (109 votes)
It's about time. Maybe I'll buy something from them eventually.
23% (159 votes)
Why the hell do I care about iTunes? When they have a Linux version, maybe we'll talk.
61% (427 votes)
Total votes: 695
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Please support independent artists

Wyatt's picture
Submitted by Wyatt (not verified) on Sat, 01/10/2009 - 16:43.

Magnatune.

By and large, I find most of the music produced under large labels these days to suck harder than my Kirby. Yeah, there's a lot of terrible stuff pushed out on the independent scene, too; but the victories are sweeter and the music fresher, in my opinion. Being able to get an uncompressed waveform to encode yourself is pretty nice, too. :)

How did they justify for it ?

darko's picture
Submitted by darko (not verified) on Wed, 01/07/2009 - 18:16.

No one mentions that they just raised price 30 % in order to make music labels more happy. Thats how they justified getting rid of DRM.
There is always some trade off in place with apple.

Sounds a little too good to be true. Probably is. Etc.

TomR's picture
Submitted by TomR (not verified) on Wed, 01/07/2009 - 00:16.

I would love it if there were a fourth survey option: "I'll believe it when I see it."

This is not the first time Apple has made claims to un-DRM its music, and seems somewhat inconsistent with the views and wishes both of Apple and their suppliers.

---

Not being an iTunes advocate, I do see the draw of their platform -- and agree with Mr. Lessig that their model is one possible future for the music industry at large.

But with that said, this seems a little too much like idle marketing to me -- a "we're making our platform DRM free, promise!" -- in light of /one of their biggest yearly marketing events/.

---

It's not really Apple that seems off the mark here, so much as the wills and actions of Big Media.

I will truly be impressed if they've gotten their most short-sighted, greedy, and ludite of vendors to agree to having their music become more readily pirated in the short term. I am, of course, ignoring the economic and social benefits of DRM-free music to play Devil's Advocate.

Excuse the self-reply, but

TomR's picture
Submitted by TomR (not verified) on Wed, 01/07/2009 - 00:22.

Excuse the self-reply, but minor consistency correction:
"It's not really Apple that seems off the mark here, so much as the wills and actions of Big Media."

Should read:
"It's not really Apple that seems off the mark here, so much as the wills and actions of Big Media, and their willingness to serve them."

Thanks. :)

Forget iTunes; I use AmaroK and Sandisk Sansa Clip

Sum Yung Gai's picture
Submitted by Sum Yung Gai (not verified) on Tue, 01/06/2009 - 21:48.

No DRM involved, no "Windows/Mac only" stupidity, AmaroK Just Works (TM). Oh, and the Sansa Clip supports both Ogg Vorbis and FLAC. With such excellent support, I don't see any need for iGoons or the equally proprietary iBlob. With my setup, all my music truly "plays for sure."

Yay, SanDisk, for supporting truly open formats! And thank you, KDE team, for the wonderful AmaroK!

--SYG

Ehhh

Carlie Fairchild's picture
Submitted by Carlie Fairchild on Tue, 01/06/2009 - 21:19.

Amazon's MP3 store suits me just fine (http://www.amazon.com/MP3-Music-Download/b?ie=UTF8&node=163856011).

Day late/dollar short.

Carlie Fairchild is the publisher of Linux Journal.

Holy Smoke

Drooling's picture
Submitted by Drooling (not verified) on Mon, 01/12/2009 - 20:02.

Totally off topic, but . . .

Linux Journal's publisher very is easy on the eyes! Lovely avatar.

If they ever support FLAC,

Oropher8598's picture
Submitted by Oropher8598 (not verified) on Tue, 01/06/2009 - 20:30.

If they ever support FLAC, then maybe we'll talk.

Same thing. CD quality music

Anonymous's picture
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 01/06/2009 - 21:16.

Same thing.

CD quality music in open format is what I want.

itunes still isn't up to LALA standards

ld1duck's picture
Submitted by ld1duck on Tue, 01/06/2009 - 18:35.

With all DRM free music, platform independence, and cheaper prices on their side, I would think LALA.com should still gain ground on iTunes.

Year without DRM

Colin Dean's picture
Submitted by Colin Dean (not verified) on Tue, 01/06/2009 - 18:04.

While this is good news, it's still important to keep one's resolution to avoid DRM. Perhaps it got just a little easier.

http://www.yearwithoutdrm.com

But what about the PRICE HIKE??

Tracy Manford's picture
Submitted by Tracy Manford on Tue, 01/06/2009 - 17:58.

I'm happy about the DRM-free music, but come on Apple. Raising prices on some of the music to $1.29 a song? Get OUT of here with that crap! Hmph.