Katie MarsalWhile Apple's move to remove copy protection from iTunes songs has been welcomed, shoppers have found that some protected songs have been pulled outright with no immediate signs of iTunes Plus replacements.
As an example, Neil Young's "The Bridge School Collection" albums — which were online exclusives for Apple's store — surface in the auto-populated search suggestions but are unusually absent in the actual search results. Other titles no longer show at all, and the number of songs eligible for iTunes Plus has decreased even when the songs themselves still exist on the iTunes Store as iTunes Plus editions.
Why the disappearances are taking hasn't been formally explained by Apple. The firm had promised that it would offer all its songs without locks by the end of the quarter but didn't say it would pull the older versions if it didn't reach that timetable or if they were needed for iTunes Plus reasons.
The LA Times recently floated a rumor, however, that Apple would use April 7th as a cutoff date that would switch iTunes from its longstanding flat-rate model to variable pricing, which may affect licensing or other purchasing concerns for tracks whose artists or publishing labels haven't agreed to changes. Apple is known to have had hard-fought negotiations with labels to institute variable pricing on its planned schedule.
No matter what's triggering the pullback, the shift is little comfort to those who either wanted particular albums or had planned to upgrade, either for the freedom to move songs to any device or for the better sound quality. Apple hasn't outlined what these customers can do, leaving at least some frustrated.
"I still need to upgrade my old non-Plus songs to Plus," one AppleInsider reader says. "Where do I go now?"
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A little off-topic, but congrats to Apple Insider for clearing the 5000 post barrier. Quite an accomplishment.
(And to boot, 1st post in thread for me! WOOT!)
Well April 7th has officially hit here in the UK, and the iTunes Store has been updated (New single of the week etc.), but there's no sign of variable pricing anywhere, and my upgrade to iTunes Plus count remains at 60 (out of around 150).
I wondered what was going on; the LOST OST from S1 is unavailable but 2 and 3 are there. This explains it.
I have songs from 13 albums waiting in my shopping cart for iTunes Plus versions. Those songs are now grayed out, and "unavailable."
There are a few others that changed to iTunes Plus in the last week or two.
Hopefully it's because they just didn't meet the deadline, and will get offered later (soon), but it's possible they could be gone for good. I don't know if it's up to the record companies or Apple to convert them, but it's sad to see iTunes losing music (while loosening restrictions).
At least a couple of the 13 albums are available for download at Amazon, but most aren't.
"I still need to upgrade my old non-Plus songs to Plus," one AppleInsider reader says. "Where do I go now?"
Mininova?