Goodbye, iTunes Music Store

In some ways, Apple is just as evil as any other corporation.

I've never liked buying tracks on iTunes. It has a great UI and a strong selection, and is dead simple and lightning fast. But the songs are DRMed, and that makes them almost completely worthless in my opinion. When I buy a song, I want to own it dammit, not be told when, where and on what devices and computers I can listen to it or how many times I can burn it to a disc or turn it into a ringtone, etc. Of the more than 7,500 songs I currently have crammed onto my laptop harddrive, just 352 of them are iTunes purchases, almost all via gift cards I've received or from Pepsi bottle cap credits. Occasionally, I might buy a song, but only out of laziness.

Never again.

Until iTunes drops DRM completely, I am an Amazon man.

I downloaded my first Amazon mp3 today, Tea for the Tillerman by Cat Stevens (it's also the theme song from Extras). I had to download an additional application, but it was a relatively smooth process, the mp3 cost 99 cents (albums are $8.99) and the bit rate was twice that of iTunes. And no DRM.

Amen.