DRM free tunes are now available from US Amazon (Warner being the latest to join them). Will this eventually see Apple releasing its entire stock DRM free?

I hope so but of course it relies on the labels allowing it. There's no real reason for a label to offer DRM free files to Amazon and not to Apple except to try and force Apple to offer them better terms.

I hope so - :D - and hope they get better bitrate concessions from the labels.

iTunes is still a nicer user experience, just that 99c is too much for 128k ripped music.

To me there seems an effort (started by Universal but spreading to other Music Companies) to get away from Apple and iTunes. They all seem to have one of two perceived things against iTunes, the single pricing and thought of digital monopoly.

There is a most definite conspiracy by music companies (lead by Universal) to swash Apple's iTunes. :eek:

Will this eventually see Apple releasing its entire stock DRM free?

One can only hope. It is taking the record labels a long time to realise that insisting on DRM is counter-productive in terms of reducing piracy. If you insitute a system that places limitations on legitimately purchased songs then you force people to break the system just to be able to play these purchased songs in their cars or on their phones or media players. By putting DRM on your music, you're sending your customers straight towards the pirates you're trying to keep them away from.

It's similar to the anti-piracy ads on DVDs, which you aren't able to skip or fast-forward :mad:- it punishes people for buying something legitimately. I make copies of every DVD I own, partly so that I can keep the originals safe from kiddie fingers (nothing sucks more than having a tiny hairline scratch wipe out an expensive movie), but mainly so that I can actually watch "Casablanca" without having to sit through 5 minutes of distributor logos and "you're a pirate you $%$#@" insulting warnings (or, even worse, opening menus that show way too much of the film, ruining the effect for anyone who hasn't seen it).

I remember at least two occasions where I've seen someone watching a DVD for the first time (a few years back now) see these opening warnings and say "Wait, you mean you can download movies from the Internet?"

I have never purchased DRM music. If it weren't for DRM I'd probably be buying from iTunes on a regular basis, but instead I am sticking to buying CDs.

To me there seems an effort (started by Universal but spreading to other Music Companies) to get away from Apple and iTunes. They all seem to have one of two perceived things against iTunes, the single pricing and thought of digital monopoly.

There is a most definite conspiracy by music companies (lead by Universal) to swash Apple's iTunes. :eek:

absolutely. I'm no Steve Jobs, but it seems to me what Apple should do to strike back is:

1) Allow podcasters to charge for their episodes and/or allow anyone to offer their videos in the TV and Movie store.
2) Offer independent artists on iTunes with no DRM.

The former may scare TV networks into coming back to iTunes as they fear podcasts could cannibalise their TV business. THe latter would scare record labels because more up and comiong artists would choose to bypass the labels and go straight to iTunes.

If Apple did that I think they would trip over themselves to return to iTunes.

I really don't think anyone is going to want to pay for podcasts.

I really don't think anyone is going to want to pay for podcasts.

Well I pay for ScreenCastOnline (http://www.screencastonline.com/). I feel Don's presentations are more than worth the same fee.