iTunes Plus Upgrades Are All-or-Nothing
Apple recently announced that it will offer all iTunes tracks as Plus tracks, which are high-quality, DRM-free tracks. Apple gave in to the music industry’s request to have a tiered pricing structure for songs, ranging from $.69 to $1.29 each. I suppose that is acceptable, but what I object to are the terms of upgrading my existing library of iTunes purchases. Granted, you don’t have to upgrade your tracks if you aren’t interested in doing so.
Upgrading existing songs cost $.30 each. That appears true regardless if the new Plus track is the same price that you paid the first time around. $.30 is too much to ask for each song that I already own. The icing on the cake of this absurdity is that you are forced to upgrade your entire iTunes purchase library to upgrade your tracks. It is all-or-nothing. Individual songs cannot be selected for upgrade. The price I was quoted in iTunes to upgrade my 310 tracks was $75. I shrieked. Get real. I’m not paying that. Not even.
While I am happy about all tracks being Plus tracks in the future, and I’ll continue being an iTunes customer, this kind of situation leaves a bad taste in my mouth. It is just another chance for the music industry to rip me off one more time for stuff that I already have. Just as they did when I replaced old, worn out cassettes with CDs many years ago. They seem hell-bent on forcing us to buy the same shit over and over again. Ugh.
