p2pnet.net news:- Is today the day? Can we expect an announcement from Steve Jobs, that iTunes will now be touting non-DRM downloads supplied by Big 4 music cartel member EMI?

Whenever the downloads eventually arrived, they may be DRM-free, but they’ll be far from free free, coming in at a whopping $1.30 each.

Current iTunes tracks, fully loaded with DRM (Digital Restrictions Management) consumer control software, aren’t exactly cheap either. They’re a dollar a go, or even more, depending on where you live.

Apple and EMI said a “significant portion” of EMI’s catalogue of DRM-free music would be sold through iTunes, and the implementation was to have been this month.

But May is almost over.

EMI has just been bought by a private European group. Did the acquisition upset the Apple download cart?

But, “Like an an old-style burlesque stripper waving fans in front of her body, only to retreat behind a curtain at the crucial moment,” maybe Apple is merely, “teasing Macolytes with the supposed impending arrival of DRM-free iTunes product,” p2pnet suggested on Monday.

And it looks like tomorrow will be DRM Day or, rather, DRM-free day.

“Apple released iTunes 7.2 updated in the Mac OS X Software Update tonight, which offers support for “iTunes Plus”, Apple’s new DRM-free $1.29 offerings announced in April,” states MacRumors, going on:

Despite the software update, the Apple iTunes Store itself does not show any DRM-Free music currently available for purchase. The DRM-Free launch will likely occur later this morning (Wed, May 30th).

From the iTunes Help, it appears you will be able to upgrade your existing songs to the iTunes Plus (DRM Free) version:

The iTunes Store also offers songs without DRM protection, from participating record labels. These DRM-free songs, called “iTunes Plus,” have no usage restrictions and feature higher-quality encoding.

The first time you buy an iTunes Plus song, you specify whether to make all future purchases iTunes Plus versions (when available). You can change this setting by accessing your account information on the iTunes Store.

If you already have iTunes Store purchases that are now available as iTunes Plus downloads, you may upgrade your existing purchases. To do so, visit the iTunes Store and follow the onscreen instructions.

Based on the text strings in the iTunes resources, it appears that upgraded iTunes Plus music replaces the original purchases in your library. The replaced files can be moved to the Trash or to your Desktop optionally.

But when you get right down to brass tacks, it won’t really matter much when iTunes starts supporting DRM-free downloads.

In the real world of online music, things will remain as they’ve always been: music lovers will continue to download from affordable independent services such as AllofMP3.com, from sites set up by musicians themselves, and always, of course from the free p2p networks.

Because whatever the Big 4 may hope, p2p file sharing isn’t going away and people with any sense will continue to ignore the corporate supplied and backed services, of which, realistically speaking, there’s only one, and that’s iTunes.

And ironically, iTunes isn’t even a genuine service. It’s the online front end for Apple iPods, paid for by the punters themselves at a dollar a pop.

Slashdot it!

Also See:
significant portion – EMI unlikely to change DRM plans, May 25, 2007
just been bought – EMI sold for $4.7 billion, May 21, 2007
p2pnet – Apple still coy on DRM-free iTunes, May 28, 2007
MacRumors – Apple Releases iTunes 7.2, Launches iTunes Plus (DRM Free), May 30, 2007
real world – 1 billion songs a DAY shared online, March 8, 2007

If your Net access is blocked by government restrictions, try Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto’s Munk Centre for International Studies. Go here for the official download, here for the p2pnet download, and here for details. And if you’re Chinese and you’re looking for a way to access independent Internet news sources, try Freegate, the DIT program written to help Chinese citizens circumvent web site blocking outside of China. Download it here.

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Tired of being treated like a criminal? They depend on you, not the other way around. Don’t buy their ‘product’. Do bug your local politicians. Use emails, snail-mail, phone calls, faxes, IM, stop them in the street, blog. And if you’re into organizing, organize petitions, organize demonstrations and then turn up on your local political rep’s doorstep, making sure you’ve contacted your local tv/radio station/newspaper in advance. Don’t just complain. Do something!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 30th, 2007 at 10:09 am and is filed under DRM. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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