Monday, July 06, 2009

The post-DRM world - Dave Brubeck via iTunes

A few months ago Apple removed FairPlay DRM from their Apple store music collection. It's all "iTunes Plus" now, which for the new Dave Brubeck release I reviewed means it's all 256 kbps AAC encoded.

I can play it anywhere that can manage AAC, including my SONY car stereo and any "MP3" player that's worth bothering with.

It's not the quality of a CD of course. On the other hand I could get the music quickly, listen to it immediately, save the hassle of filing the CD and ripping the music, and the $10 price on the retrospective album seems fair to me.

So I bought the album.

I wouldn't have done that back in the days that Apple DRMd all their music (video is still DRMd, of course). Now I'm willing to do it, and I'll buy more.

It took me a while for me to change my habits. If not for the mildly shady business of the used CD store, I wonder how large the CD sales market would be? After all, if even I'm done with buying (new) CDs ...

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