I have decided not to buy anymore DRM-restricted music from iTunes, after several restricted tracks I purchased recently became available without DRM. One of them, a single from Santogold I purchased in May, showed up in my iTunes Plus "upgrade" page in June. I can think of only one reason for this music, which was released in April of this year, not to have been available as iTunes Plus in the first place: to exploit the 30% upgrade fee. That pisses me off, Santogold, and I won't be buying the rest of your album. This ripoff only cost me 30 cents, but a ripoff is a ripoff.
Ditto for El Perro del Mar's two albums, the latest of which came out in the spring with DRM, but by June was also miraculously free of it. I think I'll give her albums to anyone who asks. The new one is kind of boring, but free is free. I think her label can afford it, now that I've paid them $6 extra.
This upgrade policy has been worrying me for a while. When the major record labels finally allow their songs to sell DRM-free on iTunes, I'll have to pay hundreds of dollars to rid my library of DRM. Since Apple won't let you pick which ones to upgrade, nor simply remove the DRM from existing files, it makes no sense to me to keep buying tracks with DRM. I'm such an Apple fanboy that the DRM doesn't really keep me from doing anything I want to do with the music, but a ripoff is a ripoff.
And I won't go to Amazon or Rhapsody to buy music, either. If the record labels don't want to sell where I want to buy, then they lose the sale.
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