Sasha has a new album out tomorrow: “Invol2ver”. The first “Involver” was great, and it’s been in my playlists for years now. I would like to buy the new album. Until its official release tomorrow, the only way to get it is iTunes. I can certainly wait until tomorrow to get it from another site, but my wife already has an iTunes account, so I may as well use it.
My question is this:
In iTunes, how can I tell if I am buying songs with DRM or plain-old-MP3s?
That’s not a troll, I swear. It’s an honest question. Given that I have MP3s from discs I ripped in 1995, I don’t think it’s outside of the realm of possibility that I’ll still be listening to these new songs another 13 years from now. But, aside from the fact that I really don’t use iTunes all that often, and certainly not for listening to normal music, it would be silly for me to buy a DRMed copy of the album.
But … I thought I remembered reading that Apple is moving towards MP3s? Was I wrong?
When I go into iTunes to buy the album, this is what I see:
I see a price … but nothing that would indicate the quality or format of a song. When I open the details for a song, the info that is normally there is conspicuously absent:
So … anyone know the answer? How can I tell?
(And if it’s not possible … can anyone recommend a site where I can buy MP3s with an absolute minimum of hassle or commitment? I don’t want to sign up for a service — I just want to buy an album.)