News
iTunes now offering track-by-track iTunes Plus upgrades
By Charles Starrett
Contributing Editor
Published: Thursday, January 29, 2009
News Categories: iTunes
Apple is now allowing iTunes Store customers to upgrade previously-purchased DRM-encoded tracks to the higher-quality, DRM-free iTunes Plus format on a track-by-track basis. Up until now, users were forced to upgrade on an all-or-nothing basis, angering some users with larger iTunes Store-purchased music libraries, who were faced with upgrade costs in the hundreds, or even thousands, of dollars. U.S.-based users may upgrade individual songs for $0.30 a piece, with varying prices for users in other countries.
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1
Cleverly left until after the vast majority of upgraders have upgraded their complete collection.
Sneeky and cheeky.
I have been emailing Apple about this for ages and gave up 2 weeks ago and did the lot. Can I get a refund ???
Posted by Jules on January 29, 2009 at 6:27 AM (PST)
2
About time! I’d held off upgrading as there’s only a couple of albums that I want to upgrade!
Posted by NFreak007 on January 29, 2009 at 6:53 AM (PST)
3
I’m glad I didn’t upgrade since I only wanted to upgrade my jazz songs. My upgrade total was $278.61. I noticed that I can’t get my videos to page forward in iTunes. I can only access the songs/albums and I have 33 music videos showing but can only access the first 9 on page one. Guess I’ll have to contact customer service.
Posted by Audrey McGirt on January 29, 2009 at 7:47 AM (PST)
4
Finally! This is good news. If a person had availed themselves of the weekly free discovery downloads their upgrades were held hostage by songs which they might not have bought unless they were free in the first place. The old upgrade model made the user pay $0.30 for the formerly free song even if they hated the song in order to upgrade songs they did want.
Posted by Rand on January 29, 2009 at 8:45 AM (PST)
5
From what I have read, you must be using 1-click, otherwise, it will try to charge you full price when using the shopping cart. D’oh!
Posted by Galley in Greenville, SC on January 29, 2009 at 8:54 AM (PST)
6
If you were unhappy with all or nothing, you should have waited. I had a feeling that it would take time, but I refused to upgrade everything at once. Apple came to a lot quicker than expected by me.
Posted by studogvetmed in Loveland, CO on January 29, 2009 at 9:28 AM (PST)
7
Yo 5 (Galley) - Can you pls share where you read this (about 1-click)? Thx.
Posted by chashulme in Southern California on January 29, 2009 at 3:38 PM (PST)
8
#7 - Apparently this is a known bug and the workaround is to use one-click rather than the shopping cart.
Posted by rockmyplimsoul on January 29, 2009 at 5:30 PM (PST)
9
All I can say is THANKS, Apple
Posted by Just ME on January 30, 2009 at 8:11 AM (PST)
10
About time! I held out upgrading ever since iTunes Plus came out.
I would’ve had to fork over $405.90 to upgrade everything I bought.
Posted by Lawls on January 30, 2009 at 1:09 PM (PST)
11
I think it’s great that they finally offer this, and I’m glad I held out. I almost upgraded last weekend.
I have a feeling they want to get as many people to upgrade NOW, before the variable pricing goes into effect in April. Imagine trying to get someone to pay 30 cents to upgrade a 99 cent song when that song might now be offered at 69 cents . . .
Posted by Jim on January 30, 2009 at 5:53 PM (PST)