BOC/BRAIN: more iCowbell

[John Swartz]

>> No, but it does have a setting where you can hear in crisp detail your
>> fair use rights being throttled by Apple's DRM... >:-)
>
>
> I wondered over this until I remembered that iTunes is now a music store
> to most people, rather than just the default Mac audio-player :)
>
> I've never bought anything from the iTMS -- partially 'cause of the
> rights issues (when I buy it, it's _mine_ :) and partially 'cause I'm
> not interested in buying something that will sound worse than a CD and
> that, on a per song basis, costs about the same.

I've bought a fair number of tracks and albums from iTMS and don't have
a problem with the quality, but agree that cost-wise it's about the same
as a CD and you will get the full quality there.

As for the DRM, there's a fairly easy way to be able to address that -
the AAC files you get from the iTMS can be burned to CD using iTunes as
audio (AIFF) files.  You can then do as you will with those files -
including ripping them to MP3s (ironicly, also using iTunes).

Case in point - I needed a "karaoke track" of Van Morrisson's "Brown
Eyed Girl".  I had the original from iTMS - I buned it (along with a
number of other AAC files) to CD, then used a freeware cross-platform
program called Audacity to import the audio, and filter out most of the
vocals (using a plug-in that can remove vocals panned to the center).
Then I Van Morrisson's band backing me up so I could serenade my wife.

But I digress...


John