Level 1

10 points

DRM free upgrade price

Can anyone tell me why you have to $.30 to upgrade to DRM free? It makes no sense. I am really excited about the DRM free announcement but it really seems that Apple is still trying to make a profit off of a song I all ready bought. If I bought the song today it would be $.99 DRM free and 256. Because I bought the song a year ago I have to pay an extra $.30 bringing my total to $1.29. I don't mind paying to cover their costs but $.30 now seems very excessive. I have bought thousands of songs and this bill is going to be huge.

I have been splitting my buying between Amazon and iTunes this last year. If iTunes had it DRM free i bought there, otherwise I went to Amazon. In previous years it was all iTunes but I am really considering switching to Amazon on a full time basis unless Apple can explain the reasoning behind the upgrdae price.

Does anyone no where I should go to pursue this with Apple?

Imac, Mac OS X (10.5.2)

Posted on Jan 6, 2009 2:39 PM

45 replies

csdaley Author

Level 1

10 points

Jan 9, 2009 1:01 PM in response to Steve Kellener

Ha funny.

I am going to end up paying the same price as if I bought a cd. At least I could have ripped the CD into any format I wanted, including lossless. It's just a money grab.

Jan 9, 2009 1:46 PM in response to csdaley

Hi,

If I want to upgrade any of the songs to iTunes Plus that I am being offered, do I really have to take them all? There are some of the songs that don't interest me anymore.

Cheers.

Jan 9, 2009 2:01 PM in response to csdaley

I just put in a suggestion to www.apple.com/feedback to allow customers to choose what they would like to upgrade.

I also suggested offering a similar service to upgrade previously purchased standard definition TV shows to HD.

If others send in feedback, they might think about it.

Jan 9, 2009 2:14 PM in response to csdaley

Why do you assume that the .30 goes to Apple? I would thing that most of it would go to the label, in exchange for giving Apple the right to sell it DRM free.

csdaley Author

Level 1

10 points

Jan 9, 2009 4:14 PM in response to csdaley

I don't believe that it all goes to the label. If it did Apple would say, they are taking to much heat over it. Apple is getting their cut.

brobin

Level 1

0 points

Jan 9, 2009 4:43 PM in response to csdaley

I just got another one where the price for my Van Halen album to upgrade is over $11. Note that they are charging us Canadians .40 per song!!!!

I was surprised since I was sure it was 30 percent of the album cost. I bought the album for 19.99, but it is now listed as over $34!

So basically, some albums are being stealth increased in price and the upgrade fee goes up with it. They want almost 60 percent of my original price (from 6 months ago) to upgrade the album.

Add in the annoyance that I have to upgrade this album if I want to upgrade anything....

This ***** and I have stopped upgrading songs. I will just buy elsewhere from now on.

Jan 9, 2009 5:19 PM in response to csdaley

Nobody HAS to upgrade their songs to iTunes Plus.

It is is just an option.

Is DRM music really that important? What use is it anyway?

csdaley Author

Level 1

10 points

Jan 10, 2009 12:50 PM in response to csdaley

It's an option that I don't have for individual songs, even if I wanted to. The price is to large for my whole library. I would like to have an option but I don't.

jdredge

Level 3

534 points

Jan 10, 2009 10:04 PM in response to csdaley

This is actually a very common customer service strategy to weed out customers who simply haven't read any info on the subjects about which they wish to inquire. They just send a generic e-mail about the subject, hoping it will answer the question. I've seen this done by a lot of large companies. It's frustrating as ****, yet I can't really blame them for doing it. I'd be willing to bet that a sizable portion of those questions are indeed adequately answered by those generic responses; certainly a lot of people ask questions without doing any research first.

csdaley Author

Level 1

10 points

Jan 11, 2009 9:01 PM in response to csdaley

Bad move on their part. It ****** me off so bad that I don't plan to buying any of my future music purchases from Apple.

Jan 11, 2009 9:15 PM in response to csdaley

Everybody should start sending emails to apple stating that they are no longer go to buy songs from apple and their going to buy songs from amazon from now on. I think if they got enough emails that they would let people choose which songs they want to upgrade.

csdaley Author

Level 1

10 points

Jan 12, 2009 5:22 AM in response to broshrddg

Except that they clearly did not read my emails. What is also starting to worry me is what happens when Apple says that it is going to stop authorizing new computers for their DRM music. You know it's coming.

csdaley Author

Level 1

10 points

Jan 18, 2009 11:27 AM in response to csdaley

Apple sent me a survey about if I was happy with their online customer service. I enjoyed feeling that one out.

Sewna

Level 1

0 points

Feb 1, 2009 10:20 PM in response to csdaley

To go back to the original question.

Why is it I am expected to pay $0.30/song CAD to upgrade to the Plus version. Or the $3.00 per album price? If I had bought the album today it would cost me $9.99 per album for the Plus version. This is the price I originally paid for the DRM lower grade version so if I upgrade I would have paid $12.99 for an album I could buy new today for $9.99.

This to me is a rip-off and I WILL NOT!!! be upgrading my music to the plus version if I have to pay for it. I have spent THOUSANDS of dollars in iTunes, this upgrade should be offered as a COURTESY!!! to loyal customers.

So Apple wants me to pay 30% more to get what I could buy today at the price I have already paid.....NOT!!!

Feb 2, 2009 1:45 AM in response to csdaley

It is really quite simple. Bandwidth. You are paying for the extra bandwidth you are sing to re-download the songs. (that, and the time people put in re-compressing the songs into the non DRM format.)

Is it expensive for someone who has thousands of songs (or even hundreds). Yes. But it's a lot cheaper than it was to buy all new copies of albums on CD to replace tapes.

Just prioritize. I never really found the DRM to be that big of a deal to begin with.

This thread has been closed by the system or the community team. You may vote for any posts you find helpful, or search the Community for additional answers.

DRM free upgrade price