The reason why I say iTunes is a rip off is because I buy most of my cds from the supermarket, I have had albums that cost £3 on cd but can cost £10 on iTunes.

Why pay all that money for a digital album when you can have a physical cd for a fraction of the price?

Wouldnt say rip off. Its not the cheapest but then again, you can find some bargains

I guess your lucky if you can find the albums you like in the supermarkets - I tend to find it only stocks utter drivel. Hell I couldn't even buy Pearl Jam's album of last year in Tesco's or Morrison's - despict the fact it entered the UK albums chart at number #2. And my local HMV closed early last year - pretty much means I have to order a physical copy online at places like Amazon or just forget physical copies thesedays and move to digital - which is sadly what I find myself doing more and more.

www.tunechecker.com shows you the cheapest price for albums and singles both physical and digital. Also, if you use a streaming site such as Spotify or Google Play you can listen to as much as you like for £9.99 a month.

Yes. Not just iTunes but Apple products in general. 99p for a song that you don't own and have difficulty transferring if you buy a new pc is a joke. Years ago you could make your own ringtones from songs you had bought. Not now that costs 99p aswell.

it's not that difficult, if you have a device that hasn't got the songs/albums you've purchased, you can go on to your 'available downloads' in the store and download them all to the new device.
And you 'don't own' the track? Of course you own it, you purchased it? I'm pretty sure everything on there is DRM free now so you can burn it to disc if you wish.

And to the OP, it depends really, I wouldn't say it's a rip off - I think it's easy enough for shops to sell off old stock for cheaper than normal sale value (even if it's less than the purchase price for the retailer) just to free up room for new stock. iTunes however is just providing the tracks/albums as they are. There's pros and cons to the whole 'digital purchasing' of music across the board. I still like physical copies of albums, but sometimes it's just easy to purchase on the go and not have to worry about ripping CDs or finding space for them in my house (Especially when I usually just listen through my phone or computer anyway).

Spotify>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>I-tunes.

Only trendy types use I-tunes.

No, you are leasing the track. But I have never heard of Apple taking purchased tracks back in the event of death. I think it's Bruce Willis who has a 'test' case in the US against Apple with regard to leasing/owning the tracks.

I am older and most of my tracks on iTunes are ripped from CD's, not downloads and it is a pain in the butt to transfer iTunes to a new pc.

You are leasing the track but there are no problems transferring songs, its very very easy just put you Apple account on another machine and download all you tunes directly from them again at no extra cost. The only limitation is if you want to burn them to a CD you can only do that a limited amount of times, but you can transfer them to iPods/MP3 players as many times as you want.

As for "rip off," well suppose it works like this. When iTunes first started it offered bargains that very aggressively undercut the high street. Now most of the big chains have gone bankrupt and HMV is on its last legs, they have started selling albums at pretty much the same price as the high street did because they are the market leader. Although to many of us music fans it seems perverse to buy a album for the same price as HMV without the CD, box, artwork and lyrics book, many of iTunes customers prefer this. No clutter in their houses!

I think the biggest problem is quality. The iTunes MP3 quality is just slightly worse than CD if played through a decent sound system. Playing them through iPod phone or PC speakers that most people use these days and you wont notice the difference though. They keep going on about so called "HD audio" will come in eventually but so far it hasn't really happened and I can't see it doing so cause Joe public doesn't give a toss, sadly.

I personally feel a bit sorry for the remaining high street record stores as we've possibly evolved or perhaps devolved to a stage where people aren't bothered how good a boxed release is; be that in terms of audio quality or what you get in terms of packaging. Add piracy to the mix and they don't stand a chance anymore really.

Apple's cunning plan is to get you to pay for iTunes Match. Then everything in your iTunes library on one device will automatically appear in your iTunes library on all your other devices. Although it's not cheap (£21..99 a year) it makes transferring music to a new computer or iPod/iPhone incredibly easy.

Bandcamp>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Spotify>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Itunes

Anyone who knows anything about technology knows this is impossible.