This Little Song Went to Market…
I recently caved in to the desire to purchase songs from iTunes. I fired up the bloatware application and entered the Store, seeking out some new tunes I’d recently heard on Sirius. My wife spotted my activity and asked if the songs I purchased would work with her computer. The simple answer is no, but the complicated answer is yes.
For background, there are three computers in my home – my wife’s laptop, my laptop, and my desktop.
iTunes sells music at two prices: the spine-curving $0.99 version that’s stricken with DRM, and the $1.29 version that is DRM-free. I’m of the school of thought that a CD purchase is no different than a digital music purchase in terms of ownership, so I have no qualms over sharing the tunes within my household. But alas, iTunes won’t let me do that for $0.99 per track.
Amazon will. You can purchase DRM-free tunes from the Amazon MP3 store for $0.99 (or in some cases less) per track. As is the case with iTunes, you can also buy a whole “CD” for a reduced rate. Amazon’s store isn’t as fully stocked as the iTunes store is, but I don’t listen to really off-the-wall stuff so I don’t have any problems finding what I like. Sure, there’s no “genius” telling me what to listen to and buy… but I don’t need someone to do that. Sirius is my music discovery vehicle, not a complex process of determing my likes whilst harvesting other users’ souls and firstborns… I mean, musical preferences.
The Big Picture
Aside from the price discrepancy, my real question is why is Apple still tainting their wares with DRM? How many other music vendors have already ditched it? I don’t have an exact number, but I know it’s enough that there’s no reason why iTunes should be selling as many tunes as they do. What it boils down to is that most everyone who owns an iPod or iPhone (and that is a shitload of people) use iTunes to sync their computer to their device. How convenient that the software you use to push songs to your ‘pod also has a store built in. And, how convenient is it that iTunes is arguably the only way to sync those two? Hello, convenience, it’s always nice to see you around!
Or is it? Try passing that song you just bought to your significant other. Can’t, can you? Unless you forked over the extra $0.30 per song, you’re up the proverbial creek and Steve Jobs has your paddle.
Convenience vs. Common Sense
Not two days ago I “bought” a free song from Amazon and added it to the iTunes library. It was an easy drag and drop operation. It was an extra step, but that’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make in the name of fair use. I avoid DRM at any opportunity, and so should every music lover. Don’t pay extra for what you should be getting for free. Even though the $1.29 version of Mmm Bop (not the song I got, by the way) has a higher bitrate than the $0.99 version, you’re probably not going to notice. Do yourself a favor and buy it from Amazon and roll that extra 30 cents over to your next purchase.
For example, let’s say I were to buy 4 songs a month from iTunes (1 per week). Since I hate DRM, that transaction would total $5.16. The same purchase over at Amazon would run me $3.96, a difference of $1.20 in favor of Amazon. That’s a free song and then some per month. Extrapolate that over a full calendar year and you’ll realize a savings of $16.07 per year. It may not sound like much, but it grows linearly depending how many songs you buy.
If you’re a savvy consumer, you’ll see my point.
What are your thoughts? Please leave a comment below.
