DRM Explanation Please.
When I feel in love with music 15 years ago I vowed that I would always have a house filled with music. This means both musical instruments readily available to create and a record collection (that means something totally different now I realize) ready to be enjoyed. Currently there are multiple avenues to enjoy playing and listening to music throughout my house. It’s a beautiful thing to have a life full of music. If, for some reason, my music career ends I’ll still have music. That is a blessing.
A new friend named Nathan is stationed in Iraq and he asked how he could get a hold of some of my music. I said iTunes and he said Zune.
I’ve worked with Apple products for the past 12 years (high school yearbook - stop laughing, student paper in college, music stuff, etc.) and today the grass is looking greener on the other side of the digital download fence. Why? DRM.
The good news for my friend Nathan is that my music is available on Amazon.com where the DRM-Free music plays and the rivers flow with joy. DRM is probably not a big deal to most music consumers but for me it’s a big deal. Admittedly, I’m not your average music consumer. I consume music at rates and volumes that are probably unhealthy. My biggest hang up with purchasing music from iTunes is that it’s limited to where I choose to enjoy it. I stream music over my network to a receiver in my living room and I love it but when I get something from iTunes, I’m prevented from doing this.
All this to say, I’ve noticed that iTunes has something called iTunes Plus that is DRM free. Is it really free to be put on any music player of my choice? That’s my question. Any answers.
Anyway, you can purchase and enjoy my music DRM free at Amazon.com.
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Yeah, that’s what it means. See: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1711
I have other beef with Apple too - like how their software upgrader is always trying to download Safari (an action that looks a lot like malware). And how some of their “upgrades” to iTunes contain nothing more than new ways for them to try to sell me things. And how if I ignore said upgrade, my iTunes library tends to corrupt.
As an advertising drone, I’ve been committed to Macs since forever. iTunes is less than perfect in a number of respects, but if you’re trying to sync stuff up, it sure makes life easier.
In addition to Amazon, I’d recommend checking out how eMusic is set up. It’s subscription-based, but there is some amazing DRM-free music on there–from Minutemen to Patty Griffin and everything in between (lots of cool live and out-of-print tracks to be tracked down, too).