Should I upgrade to iTunes Plus?

I’d say the choice comes down to DRM free or not. If you’re planning on ever using a different mp3 device other than an iPod, then I would get iTunes Plus. If you’re planning on staying with iPod, it’s not really a big deal. I’ve listened to DRM-free iTunes tracks and the DRMed kind too and didn’t really notice too much in audio quality.

Oh, on the plus side, you may not have to “authorize your computer” anymore to play your iTunes music. That’s really annoying!

Definitely do not. You bought it. You own it!

iTunes plus is just paying for Apple to throw egg on your face.

if you ever plan on getting a new mp3, just burn the songs you’ve bought onto a cd and then rip the burned cd and it will “unlock” the songs in itunes.

The DRM itself has no effect on the sound quality. The improved sound quality that the Plus tracks have are the cause of the better sound.

According to Apple, you can upgrade your existing music to better quality and DRM-free by paying them money… but I agree with many of the sentiments expressed above and say that I doubt you’ll be able to tell the difference in sound and that there are other free techniques by which you can remove the Fairplay DRM shackles.

Contrary to some reports, the AAC format is not Apple proprietary. It’s open and supported on a number of third-part digital music players. It’s capable of better sound quality and smaller file sizes. Good thing!

On the other hand, it appears science has found that “young” people actually prefer the poorer sound quality of MP3 what with the high-end distortion, pops, and pips.

On the other, other hand, I’ve heard the “older” people prefer the sound from vinyl LPs.

So, you can’t win.

@robmandu @kiev749, a simple burn/rip won’t do it anymore- files ripped this way are not playable in iTunes. If you burn, rip, then convert to mp3, they will play fine. So you lose sound quality, but at least you can hear the songs at all.

@tonedef, I don’t burn CDs anymore… but are you certain?

I have to ask because there are two ways to put music on a CD:
1. as a computer file (.mp3, .m4a, etc.—hundreds fit on a disc)
2. as a music track (usually only 12–20 songs fit on a disc)

It’s #2 that must be done in order to remove the DRM. That format dates back to the ‘80s and if there was anything “extra” built in, the songs would not even be readable on a normal CD player.

If you try #1, then you’re just copying computer files around. DRM stays intact in that case and then you’re gonna need to authorize another computer in iTunes in order to play them.

And finally, burn and rip is a frickin’ pain anyway. So slow. There are computer utilities that can strip DRM from music files directly. Much more efficient.

@robmandu, I’m sure. iTunes with DRM must have some kind of audio “watermark” that iTunes will recognize, and then it will say that the song is unreadable. I think that this only applies to .AAC files, but I’m not sure. It might be any song that’s burned and then ripped. Apple disabled this workaround in like 2007, I think.

I have found that if you want iTunes to burn what it calls an “MP3 CD”, then you must select songs from your iTunes library that are actually in the MP3 format.

But, what if some of your music has been stored in AAC format (with or without DRM doesn’t matter)?

Then select those songs and select “Create an MP3 version…” from iTunes’ Advanced menu. Then you can create that MP3 CD with the copies. After that CD is created, you can then delete the MP3 copies (not the AAC originals) from your iTunes to reclaim that disk space.