“Except for those of us who have years of ripped music. Do not want to have to pull out the CDs again! Nor do I want to pay Apple $2000 for the songs that I already have... 2000 songs x 0.99 each.”
iTunes Match, for $25/yr., scans your iTunes library and allows you to download a 256Kb AAC version no matter where your original file came from. It’s like money laundering for MP3s. The record labels apparently decided that a little money is better than none for all those songs folks got from Napster back in the day and are still listening to.
The AAC files are DRM-free, so you could pay for a year, take your time converting songs, and cancel. It was worth it for me not to have to re-rip all the CDs I ripped at 128 back when storage space was scarce (not to mention the songs from various and sundry other places).
Thanks. I’ll check it out. Still prefer mp3 because it is well supported.