The handcuffs are off!

For the first time in ages, I bought an album off the iTunes Music Store this morning!

I stopped using the iTMS entirely several years ago. The store was originally unveiled back in April 2003, and I was a big fan at first. I didn’t like swallowing the digital-rights management embedded in all purchased tunes, but Apple had negotiated fairly liberal terms from the music labels and I didn’t find any of the restrictions particularly onerous. But in April 2004, Apple changed the terms of their DRM. The changes were not burdensome; for instance, purchased music in a playlist could be burned to a CD only 7 times (down from 10 previously). The content of the change didn’t bother me at all. But the implication, that Apple could change the terms of the purchase at any time, was deeply disturbing to me. And so I left the store behind. I’ve purchased a few CDs since then, mostly at concerts, but otherwise my music buying dropped tremendously.

Fast forward to today. Oh frabjous day, iTunes 7.2 has been released, providing support for high-quality DRM-free music from the EMI label. And I’m fairly confident this is merely the leading edge of a wave that will eventually include all of the major record labels. “They are grapes in the path of the steamroller of progress.”

Finally, I can purchase music from the iTMS again, secure in the knowledge that Apple cannot mandate a change in the terms after the fact.

Hoo-rah! So, I’ve bought one album and one single this morning, and would have purchased more, except that the iTMS seems to be slowed to a crawl, no doubt from all the extra traffic.

Footnote for abrichar: This is not a paid endorsement. 🙂
Footnote for sarahlibelle: The album was KT Tunstall’s “Eye to the Telescope”. Further proof that I’m an old man.