iTunes Plus
Saturday, June 2nd, 2007From Wish to Fruit
This past week has brought us the fruition of one of the greatest breakthroughs in the history of consumerism. iTunes 7.2 was released and proved to us that maybe (just maybe) Steve Jobs isn’t the devil.
I took a look at the new service, but for those who don’t know what in the world could have changed or why anyone could hate Steve Jobs, let me summarize the controversy.
The History
Even if you’re new to the controversy, you probably have heard that Apple had created a music player called the iPod and has been selling music on the Internet via their iTunes program. You also may have heard that those tracks were “protected” with DRM that not only prevented you from sharing your music with others but also had other restrictions such as controlling how many times you could burn a playlist to CD and, in practice, preventing music resale. If that wasn’t aggravating enough, Apple protected its DRM scheme by keeping a tight hold on the details of the implementation, which resulted in the largest complaint: Music bought via the iTunes store ONLY could be played on Apple’s iTunes software or the iPod.
Apple was credited with revolutionizing the music industry when they released the iTunes store in 2003, which seemed strange to many because they were hardly the first to sell music online. eMusic, presently the second-largest online music store, had been in the business since 1998 and even had been selling tracks without the aggravating DRM. Apple had two major selling points the others didn’t, though: a seamless, effortless, integrated method to get music from the store to the tremendously popular iPod and their trump card, popular music.
The DRM, aggravating as it was, was the insurance that enabled the major music labels to sell their content online.
And so for the past few years, iTunes has grown by leaps and bounds as people flocked to buy their music in a convenient way. There are those of us who watched from the sidelines, preferring to avoid DRM, choosing consumer rights over convenience.
Business continued that way until controversy started brewing. Several European nations had taken exception to the iTunes customer lock-in and demanded Apple license their DRM scheme (something Apple had refused to do in the past). Steve Jobs responded with an industry-shaking open letter that explained why licensing FairPlay was a bad idea and that the real solution was to do away with DRM entirely, something major music labels had by and large refused to do. Informed consumers had known this all along, but they were shocked that someone so far up the totem poll finally had said it.
Prominent industry commentators balked, calling his statement a bluff to avoid legal action and citing the probability that Apple was benefiting from consumer lock-in. The content and protection industry was in an uproar, considering such statements to be betrayal, and tried to dismiss the idea with ludicrous arguments that boiled down to “we refuse to be without DRM, so using DRM is in everyone’s favor, lest we take our toys and go home.”
The quibbling died down until Apple and EMI made a joint announcement: EMI’s entire music library (excepting the Beatles collection, which was held up in a court dispute) would be available on iTunes DRM-free and at higher quality. For just a moment, the world stood still.
Once the industry and attentive consumers had finished catching their collective breath, discussion began. This was not without a catch: Tracks bought individually without DRM would cost $0.30 more than with DRM, although album purchases would come without DRM by default. If it went as any previous publicized talk did, EMI and other labels would balk at the idea of offering DRM-free music without charging extra for it. One wondered what difference that would make when it came to the piracy DRM was supposed to prevent. Most took it as further evidence supporting the suspicion that DRM is actually about limiting consumer choice to increase duplicate sales as people buy the same thing multiple times to play on different devices. The higher quality was likely because of Steve Jobs’ refusal to charge more for simply leaving customer rights intact.
Some may complain that this is charging more for what should have been sold in the first place, but the higher quality shouldn’t be overlooked so quickly. Wherever possible, Apple already has encoded tracks not from CD masters, but from the original masters. At their former bitrate of 128kbps, this meant their tracks likely would be of higher quality than CDs you ripped yourself. At their new, higher bitrate of 256kbps, now tracks from iTunes may not just be more convenient than buying the CD at your local retail outlet, they may sound better, too.
iTunes Plus in Pratice
Now, with iTunes 7.2, we finally can purchase the promised DRM-free, higher-quality tracks. How does the store integrate the new choices? As would be expected from Apple’s (usual) reputation, “It just works.”
The iTunes store works as it always has until you come across some content available without DRM. It then asks you whether you would like to display “iTunes Plus” content. If you choose “yes,” the store will work as usual with the exception that content available DRM-free will have a small note that says “iTunes Plus,” and the prices are raised accordingly. If you decline, then the store will work as usual with the exception that some content will say, “Also available in iTunes Plus,” and offer you a link to learn more and toggle the display option.
Essentially, aside from setting that option once, the store operates as it always did. If you want to pick and choose what you want DRM-free, the convenience breaks down. The only way to choose between DRM tracks and DRM-free tracks is to toggle the option in your iTunes Store account settings. Apple bet that most people sit on one side of the issue or another: Either they believe it’s always worth the 30 cents, or they believe it never is.
People who opt to continue buying the cheaper tracks needn’t worry, though: If they change their minds, they can upgrade for only the difference in cost.
I’m thoroughly pleased with iTunes Plus. Though I still believe most albums are overpriced, the higher quality means that I finally have a real incentive to buy new instead of browsing used-CD shops and not to feel bad about being without a case and album book (although missing lyrics are still an issue). I still prefer the prices I’d find at a used-CD shop or at allofmp3.com, and nothing beats the zero cost of piracy, but I’m willing to spend my money to send the message that they’re doing things right.
Yes, finally I’m going to start buying from iTunes — just the DRM-free tracks, of course. And I feel pretty good about it. I just need to watch my pocketbook because the convenience makes it awfully easy to spend. That’s no complaint, mind you! It just means Apple is practicing capitalism the way it should be.