Be Excellent To Each Other

Folk, you're all hip and apple and shit, yeah? You've bought something from iTunes before, right?

I want to buy something that's on iTunes, but aside from the purchasing+downloading, I never want to use the software again. Is iTunes still a DRM fest or do I just get some plain ol' mp3/acc files I can use in other software?

There may be some remaining DRMd stuff in dusty corners, but everything I've seen in the iTunes store for years has been DRM free AAC files in an mp4 wrapper. The way to tell is to double check it's listed as "iTunes Plus" and has a little "+" sign on the "buy now" button. As well as being DRM free, iTunes Plus files are 256kbit/sec bitrate, double the old standard.

I don't remember seeing any plusness on the website.
Anyway I bought it from Amazon, it was cheaper and quite explicit about it's lack of DRM (though I was required to download their download manager before I could purchase!)

Not as good a bitrate, I'll wager, though.

VBR with the average being 250kbps.


SO THERE

Where's Reznor when you need him, with his 4600kbps song files...

256k AAC sounds a lot better than 256 mp3.

Again... I know that iTunes is a nicer experience on the Mac than it is on Windows, but is it really that bad? It's the only music player I use on Windows (with VLC used for video - so basically the same setup as I used to use on the Mac then).

Personally it's Windows Media Player I can't stand, I avoid it like the plague.

I already have a media player. I'm not going to switch simply because I want to buy a single album.
What would I do if I wanted to buy from another service?



My wooden knobbed high-fi beats you all.

The family of codecs that came in the years after mp3 - notably Yamaha's AAC, Microsoft's WMA9, and Vorbis's OGG - all deliver considerably better sound quality at a given bit rate than mp3 and mp2 can. It's not audiophile bullshit and it's easy to verify with a quick test listen. Pick something with cymbals in, their combination of high frequency and short sound duration trips mp3 up. There's not much to pick between these codecs though; sometimes one is better, then for a different piece, a different one is best.

Upload some files for our ears to test, Doc.

Oh hey, I have an iTunes question.
If I have an iP4 and Mrs Grim... has an iP3, it's not going to let us share apps, is it?

Also, is there a way to stop it putting stuff I have bought for the iPad onto her iPhone? Cocking iTunes.

I dislike it.

Yes, if they share an iTunes account. No, if they don't. That's no different to any other mixture of iOS devices though.

iTunes 9.2 has an "automatically sync apps" checkbox at the bottom of the Apps tab on the device settings. Untick it.

That'll stop the updates of the software she does have from being sync'''d, wouldn't it?