Today Apple Inc. released iTunes 7.2 with DRM free music from major record label, EMI. This is a HUGE step for DRM free music because iTunes has such large market share in the digital music business. So being as excited as I was, I just had to download an album to see what’s what. I browsed through the very limited (for now) library of “iTunes Plus” albums that they had. I eventually settled on Air’s album, Moon Safari (only $9.99, probably not for long) because that was the only Air album I didn’t have. So I click purchase.
Waited.
Waited some more…
Then I get a “timed out” pop-up. Ok…I’ll try again
Here we go.
Waiting…waiting…
Timed out again?? *grrr*
ONE more time.
IT WORKS!
After that initial skirmish with iTunes Plus, things worked out well. Everything downloaded swiftly and I had Moon Safari in 256 kpbs AAC tracks. I immediately tried to convert the files but appearantly, my settings were reverted to default AAC encoding. I changed it to MP3 (192 kbps) and everything converted flawlessly. Now I can listen to iTunes purchased tunes on my Zen Vision: M!!
This is one small step for Apple and one giant leap for the music industry. (Warner’s probably freaking out right now.)