The Internet

The good news is that iTunes is finally free of digital rights management software, which means you can play whatever songs you buy from them wherever you want without artificial restrictions (your chosen player still has to handle the AAC format, but that’s the only hitch and most players do at this point). The less-than-good news is that pricing for the tracks in the iTunes store just got a little more confusing. Instead of a consistent 99¢ per track, price points can be 69¢, 99¢, or $1.29. At this point, looks like most of the songs stay at 99¢ with back catalog going for 69¢ — unless that back catalog is still pretty popular. In that case, it looks like those tracks join current hits at $1.29. The extra 30¢ isn’t that much individually, but it does add up. And now is hardly the time to be raising prices of anything.

Until this all shakes out, remember that you can comparison shop with other services like Amazon — look for the best deals, and vote with your dollar (more or less).

You may never reach the outer limits of your portable media player if you have a huge hard drive and rip your music at the default settings of your chosen software (like iTunes or Windows Media Player). If you do try to cram as much as possible on (or insist on lossless or high-resolution mp3 files and the like), though, you might find that there’s just not enough room. What do you do now?

There are a few solutions — you may not be able to get all of the music on there, but you can determine exactly what goes on the players and satisfy your listening habits until you get a bigger player.

1. Set up a smart playlist in iTunes, an auto playlist in Windows Media Player, or something similar in your chosen player. For example, I set a playlist in my iTunes to include all files ripped after a certain date, just so I can listen to the newer music I’ve put in my player.
2. Set your player for manual operation. You can drag and drop your files from player to computer, which is the most precise way to determine your player’s content. It can be a bit tedious, though.
3. Use a random function, like Autofill in iTunes, to put an unpredictable selection of music on your player. Surprise yourself.

It’s not quite the subscriber model of purchasing music pioneered by Rhapsody or Napster, but iTunes is bringing the “season pass” concept used in their store for television shows to the music side.  Depeche Mode is the first band to get the iTunes Pass treatment, where a fixed price of $18.99 gets you a whole bunch of music from now until next year, including a new album and more unreleased tracks.  Everything else they put out between now and then is automatically made available to you as well.

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When you’re talking about downloading music, Amazon, iTunes and eMusic are great because of the selection - you can get just about anything you might want, you can preview the tracks, and they’re on your computer for a small price legally in just a few seconds (depending on your download speed).  They’re huge marketplaces - kind of like the big box stores of music.  But part of the allure of a music store (at least for the hardcore fan) is going in and finding things you weren’t looking for, lurking beneath the radar.  Sure, setting up an online music store is a difficult proposition when you take into account licensing, hardware needs, and so on, but the wide-open possibilities can surely include the boutique music store as well, right?

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Not everybody is able to make it out to the Sundance Film Festival and take in all of the independent features presented during the ten-day-long event.  However, the festival is making ten of the short film entries in this competition available on iTunes for free until January 25th.  CNET kindly lists the available downloads and gives a brief review of some of the shorts.  You will need to download and install iTunes to get the movies, but otherwise they’re free and clear for you to enjoy.

Tossing in a tape, setting the VCR and hoping nothing went wrong used to be the only line of defense between a show’s original broadcast time and your busy schedule.  With TiVO, cable DVRs and the like, it’s easier than it used to be, but it still requires you to keep up with the schedule and set your device to record the shows.  And what happens when you run out of hard drive space?  There are a few places for you to catch up with your shows.  Mostly for free.

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Not everybody watches the MacWorld keynote addresses with baited breath, and that’s quite all right.  Everybody has more important things to do with your life.  However, today’s announcement that iTunes was going free of digital rights management is huge for a couple of reasons:

1. Apple is finally ditching the process that tethers its songs to the iPod and iTunes, meaning more customers can use the service.
2. It’s finally caught up to services like Amazon’s mp3 store and eMusic, and the files it offers should be better sounding than others (based on bit rate and file format - I can’t guarantee the quality of individual tracks).

The big question now for me is whether tracks that have already been purchased from the iTunes store will be liberated from their previous bonds.  The conversion process is scheduled for completion by the end of March, so hopefully it will be addresses following that time.

In the last post, I talked about the benefits of buying music outright through services like iTunes or Amazon.  If you prefer your music to change often and you’re not too attached to keeping old files around, subscription services like Zune or Rhapsody may be the best way to go.  Think of it like a version of Netflix for music - as long as you keep the bills paid, you’ll get to keep whatever the service has in its library around.

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If you’ve received a new digital media player this holiday season or you’re just now looking at buying music online, you’re faced with a decision as to whether you’ll buy the actual files from places like iTunes or Amazon or subscribe to a music service like Rhapsody or Microsoft’s Zune Pass.  The correct answer depends on how you listen to your music.

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