no more DRM
For those who don't know what that means...well, DRM stands for Digital Rights Management. And "no more" stands for "I won't stand for it any more". Which is kinda confusing.
Basically, I've gotten tired of iTunes. I've gotten tired of the fact that it is slow and quirky on my beast of a desktop PC. I've gotten tired of its uninspired (though still quite serviceable) interface. More than that, I've gotten tired of the fact that I'm locked in to it. As the owner of one of the best mp3 players ever to come to the market, I have to use my iPod with iTunes. Or so I thought.
Recently, I found MGTEK's dopisp, a bizarrely-named program that allows you to synchronize your iPod (almost) completely painlessly with Windows Media Player. Now, many of you may think what I used to think about WMP - isn't it ugly, difficult to use, and generally worthless as a media management system? That's what I thought too, but I was wrong. The (relatively) new version, WMP 11, is not only a vast improvement over WMP 10; it is also better than iTunes 7.4 for Windows. I have a couple of gripes with its interface - most notably the lack of customization options available - but for the most part, the application looks just as clean, is prettier than iTunes, and works a whole lot more smoothly.
Back to dopisp (the program that appears to have been named by a random string generator) - there's really only one problem with it. Well, two if you consider the fact that it costs $15, which is enough to make the average prospective user think twice, thrice, or maybe four times (they do offer a free 30-day trial, of which I made good use before deciding to buy it). But the real problem is not the cost - it's the inconvenience. See, like most of you, I started building my music collection years ago, and I built it with iTunes. I bought into the "iTunes has a format for your music that's better than .mp3s" sales pitch, and as a consequence, all of my music was encoded as 128 kbps .m4a files. dopisp only allows you to sync .mp3 files to your iPod through WMP.
Now, this wasn't such a big deal for me, as about 90% of the music that I own comes directly off of an actual CD that I bought (I just re-ripped all of that music into WMP as 192 kbps .mp3s). However, for a period of about six months (a year or so ago), I started buying music off of the iTunes music store. Now, I'm not really sure why I believed that I would be OK with using iTunes for the rest of my life, but apparently I did, because that's what iTunes sells you. They use the aforementioned Digital Rights Management to restrict you to using the music that you buy from them only with iTunes, and only on the original computer (with some nuanced exceptions). This meant that my Nickel Creek, half of my Derek Webb (and y'all know how much I love my Nickel Creek and Derek Webb), and various others bits and pieces of my music collection would not transfer to my iPod through WMP.
As it turns out, of course, I can find this music through various other channels. Some of it, I got back from CDs which my friends own. Some of it had to be downloaded "illegally" online (if I had been caught, it would have been considered illegal; as it was, of course, I had bought the music and feel that I have every right to listen to it even if I'm not using iTunes....the feds would probably disagree). Other bits and pieces I've still not done anything about. Best of all, there are programs out there that allow you to convert protected iTunes files (.m4Ps - the "P" stands for "protected") into DRM-free .mp3s. This conversion is a messy process, but it does work, and someday I'll probably go to the trouble of doing it with all of my protected music (again, the feds might not be too happy about this, but the whole issue of copyright law and "fair use" is one that I might deal with in a later post).
However, I've said all that to say this: Amazon.com, or more precisely, amazonmp3.com, is now selling 256 kbps, DRM-free .mp3s. What does this mean? Well, for one, it means better-quality sound. I don't pretend to be an audio expert, but most information I've seen indicates that almost everyone can hear a difference in quality between 128 kbps (iTunes) and 192 kbps. Of course, this also means it'll take up more space on your hard drive and on your iPod - twice as much, actually. For another, it means you'll be able to use the music that you purchased with *any* audio player or electronic device, for the foreseeable future. No promises that .mp3s will still be in use in 2040, but I'll guarantee that you'll be fine until 2015, and probably much longer than that. A lot of "better" music formats have come and gone since .mp3s were created, and that doesn't look to change any time soon. Maybe most importantly, it means lower cost - Amazon has implemented variable pricing, so some albums sell for as low as $6, and none for more than $10 - similar schemes apply to individual songs. I think the average is around $9 for an album, and 90 cents for a song. I could be very wrong.
I don't do a lot of free advertising. I don't even like wearing brand-name shirts, because they often put these gigantic logos on them ("does this make me look cool?!"). But I'm sick of iTunes, and sick of the lie that they're the only good online music store around. Amazon is making a strong bid for your attention, and it'd be worth your while to check them out.
And yes...you can still use iTunes with the Amazon music. If you must.
Basically, I've gotten tired of iTunes. I've gotten tired of the fact that it is slow and quirky on my beast of a desktop PC. I've gotten tired of its uninspired (though still quite serviceable) interface. More than that, I've gotten tired of the fact that I'm locked in to it. As the owner of one of the best mp3 players ever to come to the market, I have to use my iPod with iTunes. Or so I thought.
Recently, I found MGTEK's dopisp, a bizarrely-named program that allows you to synchronize your iPod (almost) completely painlessly with Windows Media Player. Now, many of you may think what I used to think about WMP - isn't it ugly, difficult to use, and generally worthless as a media management system? That's what I thought too, but I was wrong. The (relatively) new version, WMP 11, is not only a vast improvement over WMP 10; it is also better than iTunes 7.4 for Windows. I have a couple of gripes with its interface - most notably the lack of customization options available - but for the most part, the application looks just as clean, is prettier than iTunes, and works a whole lot more smoothly.
Back to dopisp (the program that appears to have been named by a random string generator) - there's really only one problem with it. Well, two if you consider the fact that it costs $15, which is enough to make the average prospective user think twice, thrice, or maybe four times (they do offer a free 30-day trial, of which I made good use before deciding to buy it). But the real problem is not the cost - it's the inconvenience. See, like most of you, I started building my music collection years ago, and I built it with iTunes. I bought into the "iTunes has a format for your music that's better than .mp3s" sales pitch, and as a consequence, all of my music was encoded as 128 kbps .m4a files. dopisp only allows you to sync .mp3 files to your iPod through WMP.
Now, this wasn't such a big deal for me, as about 90% of the music that I own comes directly off of an actual CD that I bought (I just re-ripped all of that music into WMP as 192 kbps .mp3s). However, for a period of about six months (a year or so ago), I started buying music off of the iTunes music store. Now, I'm not really sure why I believed that I would be OK with using iTunes for the rest of my life, but apparently I did, because that's what iTunes sells you. They use the aforementioned Digital Rights Management to restrict you to using the music that you buy from them only with iTunes, and only on the original computer (with some nuanced exceptions). This meant that my Nickel Creek, half of my Derek Webb (and y'all know how much I love my Nickel Creek and Derek Webb), and various others bits and pieces of my music collection would not transfer to my iPod through WMP.
As it turns out, of course, I can find this music through various other channels. Some of it, I got back from CDs which my friends own. Some of it had to be downloaded "illegally" online (if I had been caught, it would have been considered illegal; as it was, of course, I had bought the music and feel that I have every right to listen to it even if I'm not using iTunes....the feds would probably disagree). Other bits and pieces I've still not done anything about. Best of all, there are programs out there that allow you to convert protected iTunes files (.m4Ps - the "P" stands for "protected") into DRM-free .mp3s. This conversion is a messy process, but it does work, and someday I'll probably go to the trouble of doing it with all of my protected music (again, the feds might not be too happy about this, but the whole issue of copyright law and "fair use" is one that I might deal with in a later post).
However, I've said all that to say this: Amazon.com, or more precisely, amazonmp3.com, is now selling 256 kbps, DRM-free .mp3s. What does this mean? Well, for one, it means better-quality sound. I don't pretend to be an audio expert, but most information I've seen indicates that almost everyone can hear a difference in quality between 128 kbps (iTunes) and 192 kbps. Of course, this also means it'll take up more space on your hard drive and on your iPod - twice as much, actually. For another, it means you'll be able to use the music that you purchased with *any* audio player or electronic device, for the foreseeable future. No promises that .mp3s will still be in use in 2040, but I'll guarantee that you'll be fine until 2015, and probably much longer than that. A lot of "better" music formats have come and gone since .mp3s were created, and that doesn't look to change any time soon. Maybe most importantly, it means lower cost - Amazon has implemented variable pricing, so some albums sell for as low as $6, and none for more than $10 - similar schemes apply to individual songs. I think the average is around $9 for an album, and 90 cents for a song. I could be very wrong.
I don't do a lot of free advertising. I don't even like wearing brand-name shirts, because they often put these gigantic logos on them ("does this make me look cool?!"). But I'm sick of iTunes, and sick of the lie that they're the only good online music store around. Amazon is making a strong bid for your attention, and it'd be worth your while to check them out.
And yes...you can still use iTunes with the Amazon music. If you must.
posted by Arathon at 09:22
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