iTunes Plus?

[JulienG]

So what do people think. I've upgraded my library, and can certainly hear the improvement, not sure it's worth 50c/track though.

[Kris]

....more from the news....

[b]And they wonder why we hate them.

When you buy an UNRESTRICTED track at the iTunes Store, it comes with your NAME and E-MAIL address EMBEDDED!

Why is it they think we won

[JulienG]

Oh come on.

That's not true at all.

The user id etc has been in ALL iTunes purchases since the start. It takes only a minute to remove using one of the many tools that already exist to do so (Stuff like jHymnn which started out as an iTunes DRM breaker but by default left that info in to dissaude P2P trading of those files).

Once that's removed the only difference left is dates (eg, library start date). Remove that and your copy is BIT FOR BIT IDENTICAL to anyone else's.

That's not even mentioning the whole point that P2P trading is illegal.

The bitrate comparison is also not fair as the comparison is to the 128kbps versions that are DRM encombered. As I said I can hear a difference, but am not sure it's worth the 50c/song given that I most often listen on the train with it's high noise level.

[Kris]

lol... you asked for opinions.... this is one sourced from a report linked via the NY Times.

I supply itunes with full resolution .Wav files so really, the quality of the download *could* in theory be anything they like. Perhaps if Aussie broadband improved this could become a viable thing?

[JulienG]

Well, Apple Lossless, they won't change their tone *that* much.

Plus the ~50% bandwidth saving for no* loss, they'd be idiots not to.

In any case WWDC should prove interesting this year.

*: Yes that's the whole point of lossless, bit-for-bit once decompressed