Filter--good music guide
by
Katrina Nattress

Apple's got the digital world by the balls.Not only does it produce the highest-selling MP3 players,it also limits it's user's to where they can play the song's they own.
And even with Apple's new DRM(Digital Rights Management) agreement with the four major music labels,you are still charged a 30-cent upgrade to set up your old songs free.DVD Next copy iTurns Free is an application that works by tricking iTunes into thinking it's a CD burner when in actuality it is converting the files into unprotected MP3's.
For $30,you can buy a registered version of the application that removes DRM and saves the files as Ogg Vorbis (a free,open, and unpatented file format-and probably also an undead monster that lives in a cave in Romania).

The best part about DVD Next Copy is that it's legal,because CD burning is part of iTunes and Windows Media DRM.
Ya gotta love those loopholes.

The "conversion" process you mention is called transcoding (direct digital-to-digital conversion from one format to another).

The iTunes Store sells lossy AAC files. Older files are 128kbps DRM AAC, while the new iTunes Plus songs are 256kbps DRM-free AAC.

Converting either of these to unprotected MP3s is going from lossy-to-lossy, creating a 2nd-generation copy with substandard sound. You cannot gain or even maintain quality going from lossy-to-lossy ... you can only lose quality. Also, the iTunes MP3 encoder is not really highly rated (although it's AAC encoder is rated as one of the best available).

With the new iTunes Plus files, there is no DRM so you don't need any applications or plugins to convert to another format.

I also really don't see why people would convert to Ogg Vorbis. Yes, there are many other codecs that iTunes should support - the main one being FLAC. Also free, also unpatented ... and MUCH more widely used.

Judging from your post, you seem to be against the iTunes Store DRM on principle. Or just anti-Apple. The only reason to go through this much trouble to get around DRM is to use the songs illegally. The original Fairplay DRM is more than generous.

I have nothing against Apple.
(just giving the author full credit)
I just thought this could be another piece of the puzzle for helping people keep music they purchase.

glt said:

I've never had a problem with any iTunes songs. Granted, I don't buy whole album downloads (I still buy actual CDs for those). But iTunes is great for the one-off track or impulse buy.

The biggest problem I've had with online purchases was with Prince's DRM WMA files from the Musicology Store. Playing them was always hit-or-miss (they cited no true Mac support) and burning to CD was not an option for me (the latest Mac version of WMP didn't have burn capabilities). Before I could try to use a friend's PC to burn them, the NPGMC site was closed. Now I have about 3 albums of worthless files on my harddrive.

In this case I'd have to agree with you. $30 might not seem like a lot to most people, but it's a lot to waste on nothing. I don't trust any kind of WMA file . . . and I'm sure there are those out there who don't trust AAC files.

But I don't think the iTunes Store is going anywhere anytime soon.