You can upgrade your iTunes music and video library right now, if that’s your thing.
Apple wants 30 cents per song and 60 cents per music video. For me, that comes out to $3.30 to convert the 11 DRM’d songs I’ve downloaded from iTunes in the five years it’s been around. (That works out to 2.2 songs per year. Clearly Apple values my business.) Now I can have Shakira’s “Hips Don’t Lie / Bamboo (2006 FIFA World Cup Mix en Español)” DRM-free. Joy to the world!
Right now mine is $74.10 to upgrade 250 songs. I have another 400 tracks that have DRM that aren’t upgradable yet. I think it’s a rip off that I have to pay an additional 30 cents for tracks I already paid for. I’m still deciding on what I should do. I would really love to unchain my music from iTunes. Not sure if it’s worth the price.
I will upgrade your library to 192 kbps DRM Free MP3s for only 25 cents each
Minimum order of 100000 songs
Or, now that you have paid for them, just go download them. You do technically own the music.
Once again, those who actually play by the rules and do the right thing get screwed.
White-collar fraud and corporate embezzlement are looking better and better every day.
idiots. Here is why this is happening.
1 year ago you buy Blue Oyster Cults “Godzilla” to play at your wedding. You pay 99 cents for it because it has DRM. Apple for arguments sake pays 79 cents for the song from the Distributor. Now they come out with the high bitrate, DRM free version for $1.29. Apple probably paid 99 cents for that track from the distributor. So you sees they are two separate SKU’s in Apple’s system for the same song, one with DRM one without, with two different costs. When you upgrade they are not “stripping” the DRM from the song, they are actually giving you the second SKU at a discounted rate (below cost it would seem, but you’re a good customer so it’s ok) So they can’t just give it away, they had to pay for it to get it from the distributor (I hope you don’t think that Apple has a team of monkey’s ripping songs off of CD’s 24 hours a day 7 days a week and all they have to do is just send you the new DRM-free song, ’cause, you know it’s just sitting there.)
So please try and understand the business model before you complain about how you’re getting screwed by this big greedy corporation that you continue to buy products from….
I totally agree. Apple is not pocketing the full $0.30 – they are a reseller of music and the labels will always get their contractual share. This is how business works.
I don’t think I said Apple is pocketing the full 30 cents per song, merely that Apple “wants” that amount for services rendered. How that 30 cents is divvied up between however many parties isn’t public information.
No but you di make it sound as if Apple is doing something underhanded and predatory…
I love looking at my itunes account at all the music I purchased due to relatives thinking I needed giftcards. And I REALLY love when I realize the ipod they were stored on is stolen after I backed up a failed drive and they won’t let me download them again. Can I pay 30 cents a song to get my music back?