EMI to drop DRM from iTunes.

[JonathanHull]

According to several sources, Apple and EMI will announce today that they are dropping DRM from EMI labeled music. This is great news for Rockbox as it will likely allow Rockbox to play iTunes purchases without having to go through the tedious process of stripping the DRM. Who agrees?

I am seriously considering temporarily breaking my personal boycott on the RIAA and Apple/iTunes to at least test this fact as iTunes is the #1 online music store and the ability to play music bought through iTunes on Rockbox would not be a bad thing.

[bk]

It's supposedly also "twice the sound quality" which I assume means 256 kbps instead of 128 kbps. Unfortunately I don't think rockbox can decode 256k AAC files in realtime on most devices...

[JonathanHull]

I didn't think about that. That would be a problem.

Well, at least the DRM is gone so we could easily re-encode if desired.

Any possibility in improving the AAC decoder to the point it can decode 256kbit AAC in realtime?

[GodEater]

From what I've read - the change won't happen till May either.

[JonathanHull]

Aye. Not immediate.

Buffer time to prepare the codec?

[Mikerman]

From what I have read, most of the above is correct.  Note that customers will have the option of U.S.$.99 songs at iTunes (from EMI) at the lower recording rate and still with digitial rights management, and U.S.$1.29 at the higher rip rate without digital rights management.  Customers also may "re-purchase" their music for U.S.$.30 at the higher rate.  

Full albums will be at the same, current cost, and without digital rights management.

Note that this only applies as to EMI songs right now (starting in May).  

[JonathanHull]

Sorry for the necro but I thought I would update everyone.

Today iTunes launched their DRM-Free store, dubbed "iTunes Plus".

Things are a bit slow going cause of high traffic, but it's up and running. For the most part it looks as expected. Songs are $0.30 more per track ($1.29), and the same per album it appears. Only a small portion of the music is available for now, but thats expected.

I went ahead and broke my personal boycott to test it and bought a full album (Megadeth). On the ones that successfully downloaded (because of high traffic) they seem to play fine. My ears aren't good enough to hear the quality increase, though. I dropped them on my Linux box to test the DRM. Works perfect!

Then the ultimate test: Will they work with Rockbox?

Loaded 3 tracks up on my H120. All 3 play perfect! Plays in real time with no skipping (however my settings are slimmer, no EQ, etc).

So thats great news. I can't test on other players or other configurations though, so your results may differ.

[Raineer]

It came out hours later (I think I saw on Slashdot?) that the tracks you purchase, while being DRM free, are still encoded with your email and iTunes account name inside :/

I love the 255kbps thing, but still wish it was true music.

[Llorean]

It is true music. Seriously, there's a tag in it identifying it as yours. There's also a tag in it that has the track name, and a tag in it that has the album name...

If you're not going to pirate it, that information does not hinder your use of it in ANY way (unlike DRM).

So, what exactly was the problem?

[PaulJam]

If you're not going to pirate it, that information does not hinder your use of it in ANY way (unlike DRM).

So, what exactly was the problem?

The problem could be if someone else pirates the music. For example if your player gets stolen or someone else has access to your files on the PC. I don't know how the copyright owners will react if they find music with your personal information in the filesharing networks.
That's why i personally have prejudices against personalised/watermarked files.

[Llorean]

So your opinion is that the copyright holder should take no steps at all to protect their copyright?

I just don't see the point in complaining about it: If you don't like it, don't give them money, but they're now offering DRM free music.

If you want to be safe, don't let your player get stolen. Or report it to the police, judges are occasionally reasonable.

[Vortex]

Are you allowed to transcode those DRM-free tracks? Because then you wouldn't have to worry about privacy tags or you player not being able to decode AAC.

[Llorean]

They're DRM free, which means you can do anything you want with them so long as the laws of your country allow it. They're just regular AAC files. I wouldn't be surprised if the "owne information" were just a normal tag in the mp4 container.

But if you're on these boards, odds are pretty good your player supports AAC.

[Vortex]

They're DRM free, which means you can do anything you want with them so long as the laws of your country allow it.

Even though they are DRM-free it does not mean they are not distributed under some restrictive license that forbids transcoding.

But if you're on these boards, odds are pretty good your player supports AAC. Wink

Well, there used to be some discussion as to whether Rockbox is able to decode AAC in realtime on all targets.

[PaulJam]

So your opinion is that the copyright holder should take no steps at all to protect their copyright?

I didn't say that they should take no steps at all, but in my opinion this step isn't reasonable.

I just don't see the point in complaining about it: If you don't like it, don't give them money, but they're now offering DRM free music.

I'm not complaining, i just said where i see the problem with pesonalised files. I'm perfectly fine with buying CDs.

If you want to be safe, don't let your player get stolen. Or report it to the police, judges are occasionally reasonable.

If you know a way to make sure your player doen't get stolen (while still being able to use it), then please share it. And concerning you last sentence, for me the pronounciation lays on "occasionally".