Ricaroo

DRM May Be Dead, But It's Still Going to Cost You

Ok Jerk (you made that too easy), I'll give you the car analogy if you want. However, upgrading digital songs is considerably easier that upgrading a car. It is not apples vs. apples, you can not compare an electronic upgrade to steel & mechanical manufacturing.

At 5882 songs, I feel I am a damn good customer of Apple iTunes and the record companies. Since most of my purchases were replacing old vinyl, the record companies have got me 3 times - original purchase, digital purchase and now DRM-free & quality upgrade. They should have been offering at least high quality all along, since it was DRM protected anyway. Most of my ire is directed at the record companies and the games they play. Apple is not the problem - however, they should offer an option to upgrade just the songs I want to upgrade and be able to stretch out my purchases. Upgrading all or nothing is not a good option.

DRM May Be Dead, But It's Still Going to Cost You

The problem here is that to upgrade your old DRM songs, you have to upgrade all of them. You can not pick and chose which ones to upgrade. It is a all or nothing game. In my case, I have purchased 5882 song on iTunes since its inception - 5882 songs x .30¢ = $1764.80 - WOW! Now admittedly about half of those are DRM-free already - still that is a huge amount of money to get to where someone buying today is already getting DRM-free purchases from the get-go at the same price I originally paid.

And the argument about upgrading a car is just crazy, unrelated talk. This does not compare. Most software companies give you free upgrades to versions you have already bought, until there is a new version. Ok, it still the same 'ole song I originally bought - I deserve to have them upgraded for free.