iTunes music still shackled to DRM in Canada and elsewhere?
When Apple annouced that iTunes users now had its consent to free their iTunes-purchased music from the hellish enslavement of DRM, people across the world rejoiced. That is until they tried to remove the DRM themselves. Users in Canada (amongst other nations) are reporting that iTunes is refusing to allow them to convert their protected files into .DRM-free MP3 files for use on devices that don’t bear the Apple logo. Was Apple only intending for this service to come to the US due to legal issues? Hopefully it’s just a matter of time before those regions currently without the option to unchain their libraries but until we get official word from Apple, we have to fear the worst. If you’re living outside the US, hit us up in the comments and let us know if you’re experiencing any de-DRMing difficulties.
As Program Director for an online radio station, DRM has been the bane of my existence.
If I buy a song on iTunes, I can’t play it in our shows (won’t work with my programming software due to the DRM). Being based in Canada, there are a number of offerings in iTunes (US) that we don’t get up here. The idea of paying a surcharge so that the product I just purchased will actually work is mind-boggling.
Worse, since Rhapsody purchased Yahoo Music Unlimited (to which I paid a monthly subscription fee and from which I purchased a lot of music), I have a very difficult time listening to new music from major label artists (Rhapsody is not currently available in Canada. A licensing issue, no doubt).
So guess what? Our programming has shifted heavily towards independent artists.
An earlier writer nailed it with the comment ‘that’s why people use illegal downloads’.
Our research has shown that a significant percentage of people download material that they would have been willing to purchase if only 1. they had been able to find it and 2. they could play it on whichever device they chose.
Can you imagine in the old days if a vinyl Led Zeppelin record purchased at Wal-Mart would only play on a stereo purchased at Wal-Mart?
Insanity.
No wonder the industry is ‘troubled’.
Michael
http://www.planetnerve8.com
last i checked artists made there money from shows/tours/concerts, they only make big money from selling music if they sell a lot, like multi platinum lot
@melamc
WHOA WHOA WHOA, hold on there….
“There’s gotta be a happy medium somewhere so that artists can still make a living and consumers can be happy”
I don’t see the major artists or labels who demand that we be shackled with DRM missing any meals, while myself on the other hand am out of work due to a lay off….wondering if I will be able to make my house, car and student loan payments. I wish I had it as bad as these musicians who are trying to “make a living”
@Sarig, ..I doubt apple cares. They could buy scandenavia if they wanted LOL jkkkk
@Mike:
Maybe 0.01% of professional musicians are really rich (*maybe* 300 bands/performers in the world today). The rest are pretty average (or slightly below) in income. You don’t actually believe musicians live like they pretend to in videos, right? Why are 80s stars playing at casinos and state fairs to bored audiences if they can avoid it? Most of today’s top acts will be living gig to gig in 15 years, or will have retrained for some other job where they can actually make a living.
And it’s not a matter of poor money management. The money coming in is simply not enough for most of them to survive long-term. After all of the costs deducted by the labels, most musicians are happy to pay their rent and buy a 6-pack.
Assuming that all musicians are like Madonna is like assuming that all business owners (including the couple that owns the convenience store on the corner) are like Donald Trump.
GB
Well it’s working in France… you can convert your purchased songs into drm free songs
So… what version of iTunes can i run that does not have a DRM protection on it? and where do i get it?
The fact that its all or nothing and you cant just upgrade the songs you want is a rip off.
Also, I upgraded yesterday and still waiting for this “email” so i can begin my download.
epic fail apple
@ Vito
Not sure how I missed the point and furthermore I think you misunderstood what my post is talking about. I fully understand the process of paying $0.40 CAD per track to remove the DRM from my iTunes-purchased music.
The fact of the matter is that I am completely unable to convert my now AAC encoded music to an MP3 using the built-in MP3 converter feature of iTunes. It works for everyone I know in the US, but it’s not working for me and a hell of a lot of other people in Canada/across the globe.
Michael,
Maybe I read your post wrong – but it does say “iTunes is refusing to allow them to convert their *protected* files into .DRM-free MP3 files” – which suggests they aren’t “upgrading” their library to a DRM free format first.
As an aside, converting to MP3 from AAC will slightly degrade the quality of the audio as you’re going from one compressed format to another. Most players support AAC nowadays – including phones and (gasp!) Microsoft Zunes.
-V
“That is until they tried to remove the DRM themselves.”
Michael your original post is not clear at all. You do not remove the DRM from the files, Apple does it for you by letting you download a new file after paying the upgrade fee. The new files will be clear AAC with a .m4a extension. Double check the files you are converting to MP3 have this extension and are 256kps and not the original .m4p files.
If it is a bug in the iTunes conversion tool you can use another transcoding tool to convert to mp3.
How long does this email take? I purchased my upgrade last night and still havent received an email to download the DRM-free songs. I am trying to put these all on my Bold.
i use Amazon mp3 to purchase my music but me as a musician would rather buy a real to life album and i just do the single song purchase to see if the album is worth buying, MP3’s have taken the art away from music, for me music is an artistic medium and the album art along with the order of the tracks are all part of how the art is to be presented and if you dont get that whole peiece but only a fraction then its like buying only a small part of a vincent van gogh painting, you get a little satisfation but not getting what the artist intended. Music is becoming even more disposable.
If i like a band, the least i can do is buy there album just to show that i want them to stay around and make more music, the bands i listen too are small punk/hardcore/indie bands that dont make money off there records and generally generate revenue from touring and merchndise, but still, the record label makes money off of the record (bc they fronted the money for the album and producer cost) and the record company measure success on how many records they sell, bc they dont get to touch the money the band makes from tours, so if every one steals music, even if it doent effect the bands pockets, it does effect the record labels pockets and then the record label looks at the band and says that they cost them more moeny to produce than how much money that made and kicks them off the label, and then band that every one liked but stole there music from is no longer considered a success and has to give up making music.
It’s appalling that a “reporter” could get so much wrong in just one sentence. iTunes Store songs play on iTunes for Windows; meaning all Windows PCs, including laptops. And, they also play on Motorola’s ROKR phone, for that matter. In addition, iTunes music tracks have always been burnable to CD, thereby removing Apple’s FairPlay DRM. Such CDs can then be reimported for use in any other device that accepted files imported from standard music CDs. Furthermore, iTunes Store music tracks have always been playable on multiple computers. Finally, since April 2007, Apple has been selling DRM-free music (from EMI).
Well done Apple rip us all off again
I don’t like the cash grab of 30 cents a song (40 here in Canada) to take off the DRM. Had I bought CDs instead and burned them on my computer there would be no added cost right now, so basically they are penalizing people that adopted iTunes and used the store instead of buying CDs.
This is the kind of crap that makes me willing to download music “ilegally” (free from bit torrent, Kazaa, etc) rather than ay for it. I have spent a lot of money on iTunes over the past couple of years (well over $500) because the quality was good, the downloads were fast and I knew I was getting a legitimate virus-free file. But had I just “stolen” the music, I would not be faced with a $100 fee right now to upgrade my library so that I can use it on more than 5 computers or on a non-Apple mp3 player.
Thanks for rewarding my loyalty Apple. Loyalty to you, loyalty to the artists and loyalty to the law. Well, now you can take my loyalty and shove it up your a$$es because I’m going to steal $100 of music to make up for my upgrade cost. A$$holes.
@Hainesy
I think you should direct the complaints to the music publishers, not the retailer who is licensed to sell you THEIR property. I doubt Apple is authorized to reissue a track to you without DRM and higher bitrate at no cost, just because you licensed the original. When you first bought DRM tracks you knew that you bought into locked files. The fact that you can get out of them is an option not available to you when you bought them (other that burning them to CD). So all your rants are seriously misguided. Yes, it sucks to have to pay, but then it did when you bought CDs for the Vinyl records you owned (assuming you are old enough to ever owned any of those).
@Michael Bettiol
Your arguments toward @Vito are unfortunate. You wrote in your article that a Canadian cannot “convert their protected files into .DRM-free MP3 files for use on devices that don’t bear the Apple logo.” You also show a screenshot of an attempt to convert a protected file–not a “purchased AAC file.” That was never possible, as @Vito stated. If you meant something else, of if the non-DRM purchased AAC files appear “protected” in Canada, edit your article for clarity and stop telling your readers that misunderstood you. You wrote the article and have the obligation to state the facts clearly.
You also know very well that AAC is not an apple-sanctioned format, it is MPEG industry-standard and there’s no serious third party player that does not support it over the inferior MP3. So making the inference in your article that the conversion to MP3 is for “devices that don’t bear the Apple logo” is rather disingenuous.
@ maliek
You are ranting that you do not get an upgrade to a *better* product for free. Come on, you knew the price and offering at the time you have done the decision. You were happy then, you can choose not to pay more and continue to be happy with your purchase.
You can’t go to a Toyota dealership the next day and require a Lexus instead of a Corolla you just purchased *for free*.
Even the fact that you are given the chance of getting an upgrade to a better product with a moderate price is quite a luxury in this industry, you did not see that when LPs, CDs, 8-tracks and C-cassettes were around.
As mentioned, I think it’s important for the author of this article to amend it by noting the errors in his original report.
As has been discussed here, Apple’s announcement does indeed apply to Canada’s iTunes Music Store, and I suspect, most others.
Michael Bettiol said:
“The fact of the matter is that I am completely unable to convert my now AAC encoded music to an MP3 using the built-in MP3 converter feature of iTunes.”
You’re saying that you cannot convert the DRM-free AAC music? That contradicts what you wrote in the article…
“Users in Canada (amongst other nations) are reporting that iTunes is refusing to allow them to convert their protected files into .DRM-free MP3 files for use on devices that don’t bear the Apple logo.”
The protected files cannot be converted, regardless of where in the world you live. If you mean to say that the DRM-free AAC files cannot be converted, edit your article to make this clear!