I logged into iTunes the other day and was prompted by a huge message at the top of my screen to consider going ‘DRM-free’.
DRM-free to me means I can play my iTunes tracks on my Nokia. Or LG. Or any other music-capable device.
But I can’t quite get a straight answer from anywhere as to whether this *will* work.
So in the interests of the Mobile Industry Review audience I thought I’d find out.
Here, then, is the first screen that prompted my interest:
So, £98 to buy stuff I’ve already bought. But without DRM, apparently.
I hit buy. This message appears:
Yes, yes I am indeed sure. Take the cash off me please. The next prompt was a surprise.
I have to wait for an ‘electronic mail’.
What the hell is this bollocks?
I’m conditioned by iTunes to expect to press BUY and for it to START downloading.
So now I feel like a total pleb.
A total unmitigated idiot.
I press the BUY button. I didn’t press the BUY AND GET NOTIFICATION IN A FEW DAYS.
Fuming.
Absolutely fuming I was.
That’s £100 of JOY that’s only valid when you give me immediate satisfaction. Give me time to think about it and I start to think negative.
How shit is your bollocks back-end operation that you need to do some kind of manual processing that requires an ELECTRONIC MAIL to be sent to me with ‘instructions for downloading’?
I bet Steve Jobs wouldn’t have allowed that if his mind hadn’t, obviously — and understandably — been on other more important matters.
Bollocks Apple. 100% bollocks.
So.
We move on.
I avoid throwing machines out of windows. And a few days later, a day later, I really CAN’T BE BOTHERED COUNTING because I don’t actually KNOW how long the delay was (I kept pressing the BUY button repeatedly) — anyway, I got this email from the geniuses:
Right. So my account’s been working perfectly with the billing information you’ve had on file for ages. I’ve been buying tracks RIGHT UP until the moment I hit the BUY button.
And all of a sudden, after making me WAIT all this sodding time, you send me out a flucking note to tell me my account details aren’t correct?
You, er, did see the fact I BOUGHT stuff whilst I was waiting?
So much so that the £98 I was spending jumped to £102.93:
This is exactly — EXACTLY — what I’d expect from Microsoft.
Not from Apple.
It’s a stupid, rubbish and highly ineffective fix to have to ask me to wait an UNSPECIFIED amount of time to get an email. What the fluck is the point in having iTunes running on my system if I can just hit BUY — give you AND THOSE IDIOT RECORD COMPANIES more cash — if it doesn’t download immediately.
That’s how it worked the last time I bought iTunes Plus. I clicked buy. It downloaded them all.
No sodding email.
I’m still waiting for my ‘update’.
Ewan read the following post from CNET http://crave.cnet.co.uk/digitalmusic/0,39029432… The cost is only going to continue to grow as more DRM tracks are added!
The cost has gone up because you've added more music since you first made the transaction (you had 791 songs the first time 878 the second). It is very poor they actually EMAIL you, that is very shoddy indeed.
As for playing the DRM free stuff on a Nokia etc, i'm certain its not that straightforward either..
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20…
Apparently the iTunes Plus files aren't proper AAC files you need to convert them in iTunes to AAC or MP3 for your Nokia, LG, whatever to play them.
Annoying eh?
K
Ewan read the following post from CNET http://crave.cnet.co.uk/digitalmusic/0,39029432… The cost is only going to continue to grow as more DRM tracks are added!
The cost has gone up because you've added more music since you first made the transaction (you had 791 songs the first time 878 the second). It is very poor they actually EMAIL you, that is very shoddy indeed.
As for playing the DRM free stuff on a Nokia etc, i'm certain its not that straightforward either..
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20…
Apparently the iTunes Plus files aren't proper AAC files you need to convert them in iTunes to AAC or MP3 for your Nokia, LG, whatever to play them.
Annoying eh?
K
Strange, I hit 'buy' and 130 tracks started downloading immediately, just as you'd think… Seamless.
GAHHH so there must be some strange reason why I’m having to sit and wait
for a sodding email.
I upgraded about 150 off them ages ago when iTunes Plus first came out —
and they downloaded right away!
2009/1/19 Disqus
Yes, I guess. I did have sufficient credit (gift vouchers) in the account.
I’ve played iTunes + tracks on a Nokia N95-8GB before with no conversion needed, just drag and drop onto the phone, update music library and they play straight away.
Strange, I hit 'buy' and 130 tracks started downloading immediately, just as you'd think… Seamless.
Could be Ewan is buying so many of them maybe?K
If this is true, this is definitely a good news. iTunes had been one of the biggest music downloading site, it is really cool if you will be able to connect iTunes via mobile
If this is true, this is definitely a good news. iTunes had been one of the biggest music downloading site, it is really cool if you will be able to connect iTunes via mobile