Could iTunes users suffer the same fate as Yahoo Music users if iTunes were to fail?
By Leslie Poston
In the news is Yahoo! Music’s complete and epic failure after three years of trying hard to be the music source for Yahoo! users. The failure could not have come at a worse time for the beleaguered company. Even worse is the effect his has has on Yahoo! Music users themselves.
Why would the epic fail of Yahoo! Music have anything to do with Apple or iTunes users? One reason: DRM. You see, Yahoo! Music users now find themselves with no way to really use the music they purchased.
Sure, if the computer they have it on right now lasts forever, they can use it forever. But we all know that scenario won’t happen, and with DRM in place, they won’t be able to move that music to another computer.
This could also happen to iTunes users. I’m not expecting iTunes to fail, but you really never know, now do you? Apple implemented iTunes Plus DRM-free songs earlier this year, but there are still issues. Mainly that a) not all of the songs are offered in DRM-free versions and b) not everyone buys the ones that are DRM-free because they are more expensive.
What that means for the customers of Apple is that should iTunes ever go belly up, or suffer data loss, or crash and burn in any way - you are also completely out of luck. I’ve attempted to solve the issue by storing my music in an external drive, but it is still attached to a specific computer, my MacBook, when the songs play. I’m sure that if I tried to move it or use it elsewhere I would not be able to do so.
I suppose you could say “use a DRM ripper” here, but a) that is illegal, and I wouldn’t advocate doing anything against Apple’s EULA, plus b) most DRM ripping programs only rip iTunes tracks sing by song. When you have as much music as I do (a 30GB iPod Video is full with songs that won’t fit still waiting their turn on the external drive) that amounts to weeks and weeks of ripping one song at a time.
You could burn them all to CDs as back ups, though the RIAA frowns on that (we’ll leave personal opinion on the RIAA and fair use out of this article to save space), and it also creates a huge space issue in your home. The whole point of online music is to have it portable and stop taking up space with CDs.
In the end there is no great solution on the consumer side to the potential problems with DRM when the issuing company goes belly up. Apple hasn’t been all about good PR lately, but they could make massive inroads in public image in one fell swoop here.
How? Answer the problem before it becomes a problem. Create their own Apple-approved DRM ripper to permanently rip the DRM from every iTunes song you have ever bought. Make all music DRM-free and the same price, 99 cents. That way song’s you have bought would be set free and songs you buy in future would be also. This would go far in making up for the recent MobileMe brouhaha and other PR fiascos.
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July 27th, 2008
dude they have been 99 cents since amazon m3 came out
July 27th, 2008
“you really never know, now do you?” and apparently neither do you.
July 27th, 2008
From iTunes TOS:
“(v) You shall be authorized to burn an audio playlist up to seven times.
(vii) You shall be entitled to export, burn (if applicable) or copy (if applicable) Products solely for personal, noncommercial use.”
So legally one call burn seven CDs for personal use. If you ever used iTunes you would seen the message when downloading from the iTunes Store, “Do you want to backup your songs now?”, or words to that effect.
One can remove the DRM from within iTunes. You don’t need to buy a so called, “DRM ripper” iTunes and a blank CD will do it for you.
July 28th, 2008
“Make all music DRM-free and the same price, 99 cents.”
Are you kidding me? Boy are you out of touch. It has been 99 cents . . . for a long time.
July 28th, 2008
“So legally one call burn seven CDs for personal use.”
Technically, the limit is 7 CDs per playlist. Just create a new playlist and your limit starts all over again. Then again a new playlist and rinse and repeat. The limit is purely the limit of a hassle making new playlists to restart the 7 per CD count down.
And that iTunes backup does not create a playable/listenable disc of songs. It is a disaster recovery backup. It does not relate to burning CDs for listening.
July 29th, 2008
Just to be extra thorough in response to your comments I just logged in to iTunes and did a little searching about. Using 7.7 I still see songs at 1.49 and .99. Glitch in the system? Who knows.
August 3rd, 2008
I know this takes a lot of time , but you could open a sound recording program (like goldwave wich is free to download) and record the song .The just save it as a normal mp3 and store it wherever, whenever.At least thats what i would try…