I just bought my first iTunes Plus download in the form of Chemical Brothers - We Are The Night.

The iTunes Plus version of the music cost nothing more than buying without the plus symbol next to the tracks, so I thought I’d take advantage.
Asides from a slightly higher bit rate of 256kbps there’s not too much different about the Plus files. Supposedly the music should sound better, but I suspect you’d need some perfect ears and top quality equipment to fully notice the difference.

I’ll be going to see the chemical twins in December with Ant at Brixton Academy. Should be a good show hopefully.

The new iTunes plus service allows you to download EMI’s complete collection DRM free. What they don’t tell you is that your full name and email address is embedded inside each track you download.

Update: Seems like these tags have always been embedded in iTunes purchased music.

Apple today announced that they will be offering the entire EMI collection of music available on the iTunes music store, DRM free!
Not only that, they’ll be offered at a higher quality bit rate of 256kbs instead of the usual 128kbs. There will however be a premium price to pay for these higher quality DRM free files, which is an additional 20 pence. It’s nice to see Apple working towards giving their users the choice.

Update
The European Commission has decided to have words with Apple over its pricing on the iTunes store in Britain. The Times this morning said we get charged £0.79p per song purchased on iTunes, whereas the rest of Europe get charged €0.99c. That equates to about £0.67p based on the current exchange rate.
I’m all for a price drop, but I’m not really fussed when music is that cheap to start with. I remember paying extorionate amounts to buy a CD in the shop long ago.