iTunes Plus and DRM Free.... I haven't quite grasped it yet...

[SKYLANE]

Not exactly sure what DRM (Digital Rights Mgmt) meant to me with respect to buying music from iTunes Store. Without researching it, I think I understood it to be a digital tag on the music identifying me as owner? And, it was the tag that limited play to five computers? What else does the tag mean?

I usually wanted my music in mp3 format, so I would burn my AAC files to Audio CD and then rip them to mp3 format. I then archived my AAC files for safe keeping. Not sure what that meant to the DRM attributes, I am guessing they didn't carry over to the mp3 files (???).

Now, iTunes says all their music is DRM free? I see they have option to upgrade to 256 AAC and DRM free music. What is bottom line here, what does DRM free mean to me?

[davester]

You are correct regarding the five computers (though you have to authorize each of those computers.

The second you rip your AAC files to Audio CD the DRM disappears. Therefore your MP3s are all DRM-free. The only problem I see with your method is that you've taken music that is slightly degraded by lossy compression (AAC) and then degraded it again with a different lossy compression (MP3), so the quality is compromised. If you only play it on your iPod and earbuds or crappy speakers you may never notice (or you've just gotten used to poor quality). If you're going for higher fidelity then you may find that your original AAC files sound much better.

[TheTominator]

SKYLANE wrote:
I usually wanted my music in mp3 format, so I would burn my AAC files to Audio CD and then rip them to mp3 format. I then archived my AAC files for safe keeping. Not sure what that meant to the DRM attributes, I am guessing they didn't carry over to the mp3 files (???).

Correct. All "meta" information about that song is lost when you burn it to an old fashioned audio CD. The audio CD format only stores the sound information and does not store any identification info. Thus it has nothing to identify you, the song, or the album.

How the song and album info is determined when you rip a purchased audio CD is a special type of voodoo using an outside database and searching for records that have the same "fingerprint" of the number of songs and durations of the songs. There are many occasions where different albums have identical fingerprints. iTunes ask you to pick among the matches in these cases.

[SteveO]

The 256 option lets you pay a small fee per song and "upgrade" your music to a higher quality sound. From your post above, this is probably something you won't notice or care much about is my guess. I am kind of a music aficionado and I haven't bothered to upgrade my "lower quality" AAC files to 256. Meh.

I do try to buy a CD of an album vs. the digi file though whenever the cost is cheaper for the CD (used CDs are often great buys). If they're about the same, I might just get the digital file. But my first choice in that case is Amazon as it just comes in a straight mp3 file there and I know I can do whatever I want with it without having to convert, etc.

[Article Accelerator]

SKYLANE wrote:
Not exactly sure what DRM (Digital Rights Mgmt) meant to me with respect to buying music from iTunes Store. Without researching it, I think I understood it to be a digital tag on the music identifying me as owner? And, it was the tag that limited play to five computers?

Yes, essentially. The DRM is a digital wrapper that imposes certain usage rights and conditions on the usage of the enclosed file. DRM is meant to protect and enforce the rights of content creators.

I usually wanted my music in mp3 format

Why?

I would burn my AAC files to Audio CD and then rip them to mp3 format. I then archived my AAC files for safe keeping. Not sure what that meant to the DRM attributes, I am guessing they didn't carry over to the mp3 files

You are correct. Your process also caused a loss of sound quality.

What is bottom line here, what does DRM free mean to me?

iTunes DRM, known as Fairplay, was quite benign and generous relative to other DRM systems so its existence probably had little to no effect on your enjoyment and use of the protected files. When Apple was allowed to sell un-DRM'd files, they also went to 256 kbps bit rate AAC from 128 kbps AAC. That would provide somewhat better sound quality.

[SKYLANE]

I went to mp3 format since my car audio would only play mp3, not AAC. I knew there would be degradation in the transfer from AAC to mp3, but for the car I did not care. Some of the AAC files that I do listen to on higher quality system I did leave in iTunes folder.

So, if the new songs are DRM free, what protects from trading AAC files all over the place?

Does the limit of 5 authorized computers go away too?

[JoeH]

SKYLANE wrote:
So, if the new songs are DRM free, what protects from trading AAC files all over the place?

The DRM free files from the iTunes Store still have information embedded in them such as the title, artwork and a purchase receipt, so if leaked onto file trading networks the original source can be identified. The extra information apparently can be stripped out, but I have no idea what is involved.