iTunes top music retailer... still with DRM
Big news this week: iTunes beat Walmart for the top music retailer spot in the US. Makes sense... I visited Walmart once a few weeks ago and was appalled at the mess the CD section was. Who would want to buy music there?!
Unfortunately, a huge portion of the iTunes library still is not DRM free. This is a major nuisance. It goes like this:
I buy music on iTunes without really thinking much about it. It's really very convenient (read "fast") and works very well. (I have to admit I still like the physical CD with the original art and all that, but once it's ripped into the iTunes library I find no use for the original carcass at all.)
Anyway... at some point in the future I always end up trying to burn an MP3 CD to listen to large collections on the car CD player. Except that iTunes won't let me include DRMed items I purchased in the mix! A major, major nuisance. And it invariably pisses me off at whoever is responsible. Apple? The recording industry? iTunes should come clean and bring up a dialog every time you buy DRM content saying something like:
I know the workaround: buy the songs, burn them into an audio CD, rip them into iTunes and you're DRM free, but this is really a pain. Instead, I've opted for buying DRM-free content at iTunes and DRM-crippled content from Amazon, in CD form.
Unfortunately, a huge portion of the iTunes library still is not DRM free. This is a major nuisance. It goes like this:
I buy music on iTunes without really thinking much about it. It's really very convenient (read "fast") and works very well. (I have to admit I still like the physical CD with the original art and all that, but once it's ripped into the iTunes library I find no use for the original carcass at all.)
Anyway... at some point in the future I always end up trying to burn an MP3 CD to listen to large collections on the car CD player. Except that iTunes won't let me include DRMed items I purchased in the mix! A major, major nuisance. And it invariably pisses me off at whoever is responsible. Apple? The recording industry? iTunes should come clean and bring up a dialog every time you buy DRM content saying something like:
Warning! You are about to purchase music that's crippled by Digital Rights Management. Even though we're sure you're a law abiding citizen purchasing the music for your own use, we'll severely limit the ways in which you can use it. Sorry for the inconvenience.
I know the workaround: buy the songs, burn them into an audio CD, rip them into iTunes and you're DRM free, but this is really a pain. Instead, I've opted for buying DRM-free content at iTunes and DRM-crippled content from Amazon, in CD form.
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