iTMS forces upgrade, those sneaky hose beasts
I recently purchased Atmosphere’s Seven’s Travels from the iTunes Music Store. This was going to be a good thing, because it was (properly) $9.99, while as you can see, the actual CD cost $18.99 from Amazon. After I downloaded it, though, I discovered that, while it would play find from the Finder, when I actually added it to a playlist in iTunes 4.0, the tracks could not be played and had none of the ID3 info. When I contacted Apple’s iTMS Customer Service regarding this, they sent a very predictable response, making sure that I had Quicktime 6.3 (which I did) and iTunes 4.0.1 (which became the sticking point).
For those that don’t follow such trivia, iTunes 4.0.1 is an almost completely irrelevant upgrade that was released only to limit the sharing of one’s Music Library to the local subnet, i.e. not over the internet, which 4.0 allowed. Obviously, Apple wants people to upgrade, but equally obviously, streaming your library over the internet is a capability you’d like to preserve. I have found it very useful for letting others listen to a track I am telling them about, as well as streaming music to other computers I am using outside my home.
Based on my exchange with iTMS customer service, and the refund they eventually issued me, it seems to me that Apple may very well be crippling new additions to the iTMS library such that they will only play in iTunes 4.0.1, not for any technical reason, but simply to force users to upgrade.
I was a bit miffed when they released iTunes 4.0.1; I thought that the library streaming was well-covered by fair-use provisions in current copyright legislation. Specifically, it was possible to demonstrate “substantial non-infringing uses” for that particular technology, which is the standard that Napster failed to meet in its copyright infringement case (PDF). But Apple does have to be in business with the RIAA labels, so I can see why they had to make the upgrade available. These strong-arm tactics are a bit much, though they have every right to do it. What they don’t have a right to do, however, is not tell us about it. If iTunes 4.0.1 is required, they should say so, and not leave me banging my head against the computer, trying to get my downloads to play.
See below for the full exchange with iTMS customer service:
Dear Music Store Customer,
The Music Store Team will issue you a refund in the amount of $9.99. The credit will be posted to your account shortly. We are working to address this issue, and will do so within the next two weeks. Please do not re-purchase this title within this period of time, as we will not be able to issue a second refund for it.
We have verified that this title will play correctly in iTunes 4.0.1. If you have not updated to iTunes 4.0.1, you may do so by visiting “iTunes 4.0.1 for Mac OS X: Information and Download.”
Sincerely,
The iTunes Music Store Team
REQUEST
evan :: Sep.29.2003 :: Notices :: No Comments »