New iTunes Prices

[gdude30]

Yup. It's finally happened.

http://www.apple.com/itunes/whatsnew/

A few days ago Apple finally did it. EVERY SONG ON iTUNES IS NOW DRM FREE. I think that applies for music videos and movies as well. Search any artist, album, or track and it's all iTunes plus now.

However.

There is a price. Originally what the record companies wanted was to charge more then 99 cents for the songs. I guess the agreement was if the songs were DRM protected they could remain 99 cents.

However now. The prices are 69 cents, 99 cents, or $1.29.

And the music labels get to decide how much the songs cost. I've already searched through some stuff and it doesn't seem that every song in an album is 1.29. At least for now. But select songs for some albums are 1.29. I've yet to find a 69 cents song but I'll look.

Anyways. What do you guys think of iTunes now being DRM free completely and iTunes Plus Quality.

Also with the new 8.1 update you can now rip music in iTunes Plus quality.

 

[omminc]

It's cool that they are DRM free, the one thing I hate about music/games/video is the DRM!

But...

I do not use the iTunes store because I like buying the CD instead. Though I do like iTunes as my main player for my music collection.

 

[Telstra]

who are the competitors with itune ?

i don't visit apple site as i don't use apple.

 

[gdude30]

Wow your like me omminc.

Yeah I go out of my way to buy cd's instead of buying them on iTunes. Even if the only other possible way to buy them is to pay pal the artist. But iTunes are good for singles. Like if you are waiting for a new CD to come out and you really like a song from it. It doesn't hurt to download the song and then enjoy it once you get the CD. Or just download a song that you like.

And unfortunately there are some albums that iTunes have the you can't simply find on the internet or on cd. And then you turn to iTunes. It serves it's purpose.

And it is a good music player. It is good at ripping music though. I..recently discovered this.

The less reasons to use windows the better.

I wanna find some 69 cent songs damnit.

Uh. There competetors are Walmart, Rhapsody, and Amazon.

For some reason Walmart and Amazon were above iTunes a few years ago but I think in the last year or two iTunes made it's way to the very top. No idea what the hell is so special about amazon and walmart's music download service.

Rhapsody I actually like though.

 

[omminc]

Wow your like me omminc.

Yeah I go out of my way to buy cd's instead of buying them on iTunes. Even if the only other possible way to buy them is to pay pal the artist. But iTunes are good for singles. Like if you are waiting for a new CD to come out and you really like a song from it. It doesn't hurt to download the song and then enjoy it once you get the CD. Or just download a song that you like.

And unfortunately there are some albums that iTunes have the you can't simply find on the internet or on cd. And then you turn to iTunes. It serves it's purpose.

And it is a good music player. It is good at ripping music though. I..recently discovered this.

The less reasons to use windows the better.

I wanna find some 69 cent songs damnit.

Uh. There competetors are Walmart, Rhapsody, and Amazon.

For some reason Walmart and Amazon were above iTunes a few years ago but I think in the last year or two iTunes made it's way to the very top. No idea what the hell is so special about amazon and walmart's music download service.

Rhapsody I actually like though.

Yeah; though, I will go out of my way to get a hard copy. Though sense I am a poor college student, I can't even go to the local music store to pick up a CD.

I have used Amazon's services and I liked it. It's easy and they do have most songs I happen to like.

Though I use Pandora for most of my music listening needs.

 

[gdude30]

Amazon seems to have what iTunes has though. But iTunes also gets lots of b-tracks, eps, bonus songs, and etc.

Oh god I remember that in college. I had to buy a CD at...*Gasp* WALMART once. That was horrible. When I came back home though I got the Metallica Death Magnetic CD. I was thinking to myself, "SALVATION!

I thought about ordering stuff to the college though.

Eh Pandora's okay.

 

[omminc]

Amazon seems to have what iTunes has though. But iTunes also gets lots of b-tracks, eps, bonus songs, and etc.

Oh god I remember that in college. I had to buy a CD at...*Gasp* WALMART once. That was horrible. When I came back home though I got the Metallica Death Magnetic CD. I was thinking to myself, "SALVATION!

I thought about ordering stuff to the college though.

Eh Pandora's okay.

That is true, but considering I like things on DVD too... I just like having a wall full of media goodies. lol

*twich*walmart... every time I want a CD I go to BB, FYE, or I'll check out this nifty game store that sells used CD's back in my home town.

I use pandora mainly to have background noise. I always seem to be listening to something good on pandora and now that I can use it on my Blackberry I listen to it almost all the time.

I Should comment on iTunes... I've never had problems with ripping a CD with it and use it as my main ripper. I always rip two copies of each song now, one in the highest MP3 quality and one in WAV. (thanks to my audio class I have a thing for WAV.).

 

[gdude30]

I like genius more.

However Genius does not work for all songs. It generally works for songs that are on iTunes and that you either have on CD or you have downloaded from iTunes or somewhere else.

THE MAIN WAY TO MAKE GENIUS WORK.

Is to name your artist and album exactly as it is on iTunes and the genius will recognize it.

However I'll give you an example. A CD I have. Deflowered. It's mostly a blend or rock and punk. But there is a certain track which is alot slower and softer. It doesn't fit into the rock, punk, genre. And because I don't have other songs that sound similar to it iTunes can't make the comparison and therefore genius fails for that song.

Because of my lack of song. Genius only works if you have enough songs that sound similar enough and if you have alot of songs and artists.

If I just do a genius playlist for something like..

Box Car Racer.

It gives me the following artists in a playlist and songs relating to the song I picked, "The End With You"

So, Sum 41, Saosin, blink-182, MCR, AVA, +44, Fall Out Boy, AAR, some others.

All those artists fit in the whole pop punk, rock, and new alternative group.

However. If I do a playlist for "Disturbed", Inside the Fire.

Disturbed is more heavy metal, or heavy rock type music. And the artists it associates with in my genius playlist are AX7, Linkin Park, Shinedown, Metallica, Atreyu, Slipknot, 3DG, Breaking Benjamin and so on.

And if I do a genius playlist for Soundgarden then I get more of a grunge artist and song playlist.

So Genius can tell the difference between the different types of music. And it really works for different songs on an album. Because not every song on a album (sometimes) sounds alike.

So this is I think the greatest advantage of Genius and I think it would apply to you. Because you buy CD's alot like me. And there might be some tracks that you never listened to or never liked. But using Genius you can discover new songs in music that you already have and make the music fresh again or find similar music in your big ass library.

The advantage to Pandora is finding new music that you haven't heard before. So they each serve their purpose. But I swear. When I play Pandora. All I ever get is music I already knew and it's never really anything new. I just have too much music I guess >_>"

I used to have a problem ripping with iTunes cause I did it on a PC and not at the right audio level. Yeah I buy CD's alot too. I prefer to find Music Video DVD's though and Music Convert DVD's. iTunes Quality is great to download and own but I don't need a 85 MB music video taking up room on my iPhone when I can rip it and make it 20 MB or so.

But I do LOVE the concept of "Digital Copy" that first started with "Family Guy Star Wars" because that's really caught on and people are starting discover how cool it is to buy a dvd and then download their digital copy and watch on their computer or iPod, PSP, or whatever. Even if it is like a freaking gigabyte T_T"

And yes I hate walmart with every fiber of my being. But walmart was all there was in Salisbury. No best buys

Best Buy is always my first bet. Then FYE. Then maybe target. And then if all else fails Best Buy.com

I'm a freaking silver member now

 

[omminc]

I never really tried genius, always seems slow for me. *shrugs*

To bad the iPhone dosn't have expandable storage, then that 85mb music video would be much of a problem. But I still hear ya, why have an 85mb file when you can have a 20mb.

Never got into Family guy... Though I know that a digital version is always nice. I like to be able to pop a film or show onto my phone when ever I feel like it. I hate when files are over 100mb... *only has a 1gig micro SD card in phone*

I live only minuets away from many stores and shopping centers (MOA is one) so it isn't hard to find a BB or a target for that matter. Only reason I go to a Walmart is for food some times. I don't think I've ever been to a place with out a BB near by.

 

[gdude30]

Hmm. I've never had that problem.

Well there are ways to use something like a zumo drive. To wireless transfer data or something and being able to access it from the iPhone. That's costly though.

Well that has actually proved to fail with handheld devices.

Remember those PSP UMD's where you POP a movie into your PSP and watch it. Those did not sell to well. And same as those GBA Videos. It seems people prefer to either put media on a card and then into a device or download it.

Hopefully the next iPhone has a slot for memory cards or is 32 GB. There is somewhat a rumor that the current 3G will be 32 GB soon. All will be revealed during summer. I don't wanna wait.

Yeah well they exist. I think Charlotte has a best buy somewhere but it's pretty hard to find. I know lexington has a best buy which is a few miles from Salisbury. But I diddn't have a car when I was in salisbury :/

They did build a new best buy near monroe I think. I don't think best buy is suffering like circuit city did. I think Best Buy will probably be around for a good while.

However I find the stores are somewhat lacking now. It seems they either don't have what you are looking for or they are all out and never stock it. I have a feeling people have been shopping online at their retail stores to get stuff so less employees for the actual store and they might have less orders sent to the store.

Who knows.