iTunes - UK store open - anyone tried it yet?

[malfunction]

Most impressed by the fact that 99c / track hasn't converted over to 99p / track (though 99c isn't 79p either - it's 54p at the moment - and even if you add VAT to that it's still only 64p)... Seems to be £7.99 / album for the few bits I looked at which isn't bad - going to sign up for an account later and possibly download a few bits.

[Russ]

hmmm, do u get all the ID3v1 info + Lyrics?

[malfunction]

Originally Posted by Russ

hmmm, do u get all the ID3v1 info + Lyrics?

Well the tracks are in AAC / MP4 audio layer format and do contain all the correct info for the track - no lyrics AFAIK though it's not something I'm bothered about to be honest (I can't sing a note so it matters not a bit if I get the words wrong as far as I'm concerned... I stopped trying to read things into lyrics a fair few years ago too - if I like it I like it and that's it these days...)

[unrealrocks]

Yeah - I saw it on the news, may well have a go

[directhex]

i'm more concerned with the tracks being "copy protected" to prevent me from, say, playing them without itunes or an ipod.

the only online music store i've used is bleep.com, since they sell real unprotected mp3's, made with a particularly respected version of LAME, on the best settings in existance, complete with artwork ID3 tags

[malfunction]

Originally Posted by directhex

i'm more concerned with the tracks being "copy protected" to prevent me from, say, playing them without itunes or an ipod.

the only online music store i've used is bleep.com, since they sell real unprotected mp3's, made with a particularly respected version of LAME, on the best settings in existance, complete with artwork ID3 tags

I wondered about that - as the tracks that you rip with iTunes are in no way protected (you can back them up, import them on another machine, play them with a different player that has no knowledge of the iTunes database)... I'll post back once I've bought something

[malfunction]

My bandwidth's all hogged at the moment... Downloading that ABBA video (WTF is that all about?!?)

[directhex]

Originally Posted by malfunction

I wondered about that - as the tracks that you rip with iTunes are in no way protected (you can back them up, import them on another machine, play them with a different player that has no knowledge of the iTunes database)... I'll post back once I've bought something

standard protected apple music store tracks. rules are something like can be burnt to cd 3 times & played on 5 networked machines.

[Aaron]

I'd rather pay the extra £1 and get the physical album from play/cdwow/etc.

I might use it to buy the odd track that I like but I tend to enjoy albums a lot more than I do singles.

If it was £5 an album then I might reconsider though...

[malfunction]

Originally Posted by directhex

bleep.com

Hmm... Lots of good stuff on there... Takes me right back... L... F... O... (now that's proper "big fish, little fish, cardboard box" stuff!)

[malfunction]

Originally Posted by directhex

standard protected apple music store tracks. rules are something like can be burnt to cd 3 times & played on 5 networked machines.

I've just been looking around and you can get around these restrictions - there's a program out there called hymn that will remove the restrictions but leave your key in the file (so that you can play it anywhere but if you distribute it you're stuffed as it can be traced back to you)

Edit: Works - I can play the doctored file in foobar... It refuses to play in iTunes though - and tells me the file was originally created for my account - using my account name - so it seems fair enough to me (you can use them anywhere but you'd be daft to share it)

[Stoo]

http://hymn-project.org/

[malfunction]

Interesting... I've got iTunes 4.5 on my server box but 4.6 on my main box

4.5 will play the unprotected m4a version of the m4p file for 4.6 won't... No prizes for guessing what's new in version 4.6!

[Nemeliza]

How much is each track ?

[malfunction]

79p... Read the first post

[iMc]

can you copy the tracks as much as u like.. and put them on CDs etc?