I've had an iPod since January now. I've only bought one album on iTunes so far and downloaded a few of the freebies and some freebie videos too. But I just can't bring my self to pay for (any more) DRMed media. The album I did buy I also bought on CD. So they got my money twice.
I tunes actually has some of the most relaxed Digital Rights Management out there. Lets you burn it to as many CDs as you want and play it as much as you want and you are not stuck to a subscription service like the offerings for the other online music stores. The subscription services allow you to download pretty much anything you want but if you stop paying your monthly fee you can't play any of the music again and I doubt you can burn it to CDs as much as you want if at all.
I mean really love the idea and ability to just download a song or album that I want right then. For some odd reason I just like to have the CD. I love my stack of CDs even though I rarely touch them as I have every one of my CDs in digital form and play them back anyway and anyplace I want to. If something happens to my CD I still have the music if something happens to my drive that the music is stored on I still have the CD. Sure I could make a back up of the iTunes info every so often but thats more work than my preferred current method.
Even though iTunes and amazon both offer DRM less music for download (for a premium) I'm still not attracted to this near as much as I am to owning a CD. Which perhaps makes me materialistic and/or wasteful/selfish by using more time, space, packaging and resources to get the CD.
It's not a price issue. It's often, but not always, cheaper to buy the album on itunes other times it's cheaper to get it from someone in the amazon market place or used from the local.
Perhaps it's just the control freak part of me. Being able to sort the CDs how I want in a nonsensical-nonalphabetical manner and being able to store them where and how I want. Having the control to play them or their digital copies back in different devices and places with very little effort...
Posted by Ben at May 19, 2007 12:46 PMI'm with you. I never "play" the Cd's in my collection, once they're ripped they just sit there. But it would kill me if they weren't sitting there. I'll keep boycotting DRM, but that'll die in a few years anyway (iTunes and Amazon will help that I'm sure). I just can't see myself purchasing music without something physical to show for.
btw - my AMZN stock is up 40%, go me!
Posted by: dusty on May 19, 2007 03:29 PM