In the last 6 years, I've probably blown (er..spent) about $500 in the iTunes Music Store. I am interested in upgrading my entire library to DRM-free iTunes Plus.

A few things I have noticed about the process. perhaps my discoveries could save some frustrations.

As of right now, a few things to make note of:

1.) Only some of the tracks are available in iTunes Plus versions. Supposedly all by the end of April.

2.) iTunes works off your purchase history in recommending which versions to "upgrade," not what is on your hard drive. Which leads me to:

3.) It is all or nothing. Clicking "upgrade my library" in iTunes will prompt you to upgrade all tunes purchased WITH THAT ID. No way to pick and choose. If you want to pay 30 cents to upgrade a Springsteen tune, you have to pay 30 cents to upgrade that idiotic Gnarls Barkley song you somehow have.

4.) If you have multiple accounts, you will apparently have to log in, update each with new payment information and upgrade your tunes to iTunes Plus. I have 3 iTunes accounts.....I wish there were a way to combine them.


So there you have it!

I'm in the same situation. Multiple accounts with a lot of DRM tunes, some I don't even have anymore. It's an all or none decision based on the buying history of the account?

That has got to be the lamest trick pulled. It makes the only possible thing left to do is to DRM break them all for free.

I am about at 500 bucks too maybe a tad more including my kids. But I haven't purchased anything in months because of all this. That is what DRM has done for me. Kept me from spending money on music and now it is going to turn me into a thief and I likely will do it to my children's tunes so I teach them how to cheat too.

Did I mention DRM was stupid?

I was thinking of asking Apple to combine accounts but that is likely pointless.

Something I'm wondering about: wasn't Apple against DRM in the beginning but implemented it to placate the labels? Were it not for that move, a market for legal digital music would not have happened as it did.

That's what I thought anyway. Is my sense of history wrong here?

Right you are correct - odd thing was later the labels gave other online stores DRM free , which apple got pissed about

I sent Apple an e-mail asking that very thing and here is the response i just received:

Dear Bryan,

My name is Leslie with iTunes Customer Support. I understand that you would like to merge your three accounts.

I apologize, but it is not possible to join two or more iTunes Store accounts together. However, you can play the titles you purchase with two or more accounts if you authorize each computer on which you want to play those titles for each account.

We appreciate your business here at the iTunes Store and I hope that you have a great day, Bryan.

Sincerely,

Leslie
iTunes Customer Store Support

Please note that I work Monday and Tuesday, 12:00 PM - 9:00 PM, Wednesday 9:00 Am - 6:00 PM, and Friday 4:00 PM - 1:00 AM,

Apple may also send you a survey regarding your customer service experience, not your experience with the Apple Store or iTunes. Any feedback regarding your experience; with myself as a Customer Service Agent would be greatly appreciated.

Yowch - 20p per song in the UK to 'upgrade' to drm-free. I wouldn't mind doing some of them, but I'm really not fussed about the Alice Cooper albums! Apparently I have 10 albums and a further 34 tracks available right now, at a princely upgrade sum of £25.

We will probably upgrade all our music to ITP. Papa and I don't have so much. Son in Germany will probably go broke getting all his upgraded. I-Tunes gift cards are his favorite present. I wonder if your I-Tunes Gift card would apply to this?

I don't see why a gift card wouldn't apply. It's money, after all

I'd be up the creek for over 200 bucks at this point. We'll see.

I don't have a problem with the system--we all knew that newer, better music formats would eventually come along, and we knew weren't promised an upgrade path.

As it is, the only people in trouble are the people who paid money for a LOT of music they don't like. Well, that's a bad situation to begin with I buy almost entirely music I like.

The good thing: free iTunes tracks do NOT get upgraded. Thank goodness! Those are the ones I wouldn't want to pay .30 for.

It would be nice if Apple offered more options (and less simplicity) but the system as is works for me. I'll be upgrading. (And then as more tracks go Plus, you can upgrade again later.)

Now all we need are *full* quality AIFF tracks that we can download, so the quality is the same as a store bought CD.