[CAWats]

When you buy songs at the iTunes Music Store, you can play them on one — and only one — line of portable player, the iPod. And when you buy an iPod, you can play copy-protected songs bought from one — and only one — online music store, the iTunes Music Store.

Well that sucks.

[radiohead]

When you buy songs at the iTunes Music Store, you can play them on one — and only one — line of portable player, the iPod.

Not true. I use an iAudio, a little mp3 out of Korea, I think. I can get FM and record as well. I use iTunes and can burn the music to a CD and can then upload them to my device. Is it a 1 shot deal, no, but I'm not spending hundreds of dollars to do what I'm doing now - playing music on the mp3 player of my choice.

[dayglored]

>> ... when you buy an iPod, you can play copy-protected songs bought from one — and only one — online music store, the iTunes Music Store.

> Well that sucks.

Only if you insist on supporting DRM-laden songs. There are good download outlets that don't have DRM.

On the one hand, I have a pretty good CD collection, and a lot of old LPs, and they all convert to MP3 format, which my iPod plays perfectly well.

On the other hand, my iPod also plays all the songs I download from eMusic.com

My feeling is that the best deal is to buy a CD if you want the "hard-copy", and rip MP3s from that; or support the LEGAL non-DRM download sites like eMusic.com, if all you want is the digital track.

I refuse to buy DRM-laden songs, and if enough people did the same, DRM would lose enough market share that the market would take care of disposing of it, just like most other bad ideas that can't compete on their own merits.

[antiRepublicrat]

Well that sucks.

It's the same as the Zune. Microsoft, various player manufacturers and various music stores tried the multi-device, multi-store approach, but it wasn't very successful. People may complain about lock-in, but it seems that's what the market wants.

[Mr. Brightside]

When you buy songs at the iTunes Music Store, you can play them on one — and only one — line of portable player, the iPod. And when you buy an iPod, you can play copy-protected songs bought from one — and only one — online music store, the iTunes Music Store.

Just like the Macintosh computer.

[Constantine XIII]

I giggle at apple fans. Surely they realize that Apple would be just as mean and unfair as Microsoft if they were in the same dominant position.

In fact, in the small segment that they DO rule the market, they behave exactly the same.

Not that there's anything wrong with that. :p