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Dave's Top Eight
1. Jerry Reed...Revisited by Darrell Toney (reviewed 6/07) (5 Stars) Click title to purchase at CBD.com...click artist name to read Dave's Review. A CD will automatically fall out of the Top Eight after twelve months if no CD surpasses it before then.
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-----------June 9, 2007Buying DRM-Free Music From iTunes A few weeks ago, I wondered and inquired if EMI's new commitment to offer DRM-free music via iTunes would extended to EMI distributed labels, specifically Gaither titles. At the time, I got a "we don't know, but we'll let you know when we do" sort of response from Gaither's end. They never followed up with anything more than that. After reading an announcement today that all EMI/CMG music was now being offered DRM-free, I downloaded and installed the latest version of iTunes (7.2) and checked for myself. (7.2 is required to access DRM free music from iTunes. Earlier versions of iTunes software didn't believe in DRM-free music). Next, I went in search of Gaither label songs. I quickly found Big Sky by the Isaacs, Give It Away by the Gaither Vocal Band, and a few other titles. I didn't see any Homecoming titles, though, other than the original Homecoming CD.  Since my only copy of Homecoming is on cassette, I decided to test it out by downloading the DRM-free version and see how easy or difficult it would be to move the music to my iRiver (a portable listening device that isn't compatible with Apple's proprietary AAC file format).I was hoping it would be as simple as buying the album for $9.99, converting all the files to MP3 format inside of iTunes, and then simply dragging them to my iRiver using Windows Explorer. I'm pleased to report that it was precisely that simple. In a few minutes, "The Old Landmark" was streaming from my iRiver to a pair of connected Bose speakers on my desk and I was reliving the first time I ever heard that trend-setting recording more than fifteen years ago. Homecoming has held up well. I think it would be a huge hit again if it was just being released now. (Possibly more so, since many of the guest artists on this CD are no longer with us.) One minor complaint is that iTunes doesn't transfer the album art when converting to MP3, even though it's included in the original file. A greater complaint is that the bit rate was downgraded from 256 to 160 during the conversion process. (I found a place in iTunes to adjust the bit rate for imported CDs, but it didn't affect the conversion of downloaded files to MP3.) Obsessive folks will find it particularly annoying that iTunes lists Homecoming as a 2006 release. (Of course, if you're hyper organized, you're probably used to it by now!) I'm the type who wants my group and genre names to be consistent, and I like my MP3 files to be named the same order (Artist - Title.mp3). I'm don't care so much about other details like dates, who sang a guest vocal, etc. I suppose I fall in between the obsessive and "whatever" attitudes. Bottom line, though, is that iTunes really is offering DRM-free music now and it's not very complicated to get it to play on whatever device you prefer to use for listening. The same technique I used should work for every non-iPod device, and of course, if you use an iPod, you can skip the conversion step. Of course, burning to a standard CD continues to be an option as well. Labels: Advice, Observations posted by David Bruce Murray @ 11:33:00 AM
 
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