It’s the time of year for saving money!
The headline of this article from Associated Press is “Apple
offers chance to go legit with new ‘iTunes Match'” is intended to start illegal
downloaders trembling in their Birkenstocks or jumping for joy. The gist of the
article is that it’s a big deal, an amnesty of sorts, that Apple will allow
“ripped” and downloaded-from-sources-other-than-iTunes music into it’s world.
Excuse me? Isn’t it the user who’s being asked to allow Apple’s musical deep-cavity
searches?
Background for those not up to speed – $25 a year Apple will scan your computer and
duplicate the music files in its cloud data banks for access from any
compatible device. iCloud promises to be a veritable instant hard drive in the
sky. iMatch, as Apple calls it, will replicate the music files in your iTunes library at 256 kbps in the cloud.
But for those of you who only want to pay for something
once, this quote from the AP article should get your juices flowing, “The service acknowledges a well-known fact
— that most music on iPods, iPhones and iPads was ripped or swapped. Apple reached
a deal that gives recording companies more than 70 percent of the new fees,
addressing a dark secret that has crippled the music industry, and provides
them with some economic payback.”
I’m beginning to
think that Apple and what remains of the music “industry” doesn’t trust its
customers much. But, hey, no worries, many of their customers haven’t trusted
them for years…
