eau de porneau.

Apple Unveils Higher Quality DRM-Free Music on the iTunes Store

“We are going to give iTunes customers a choice—the current versions of our songs for the same 99 cent price, or new DRM-free versions of the same songs with even higher audio quality and the security of interoperability for just 30 cents more,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We think our customers are going to love this, and we expect to offer more than half of the songs on iTunes in DRM-free versions by the end of this year.”

So much for “state-sponsored piracy.” This is undeniably a step forward, but still reeks to me. Now we have to pay a premium to do what we want with shit we buy? 30 cents is a small fee to pay, I suppose, but why not scrap DRM altogether and make all tracks 99 cents? I suppose this is a pool that you need to wade in before you can swim.

The bottom line is we will soon be able to purchase higher quality (256k AAC) music than what we’d get off torrent sites, with the same amount of restrictions (none). If the rest of the record labels would get onboard, this would change from an experiment to the status quo. Will I buy shit off iTunes once this drops? I guess it all depends on what’s there.

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