AllofMP3 is still a lot cheaper and you can always get the poorest quality/cheapest and if you like it actually buy the album - probably for less than the cost of downloading all the tracks from Steve.

cheers, Paul

That’s true Paul, I can also just grab it straight from a Torrent or Newsgroup for free rather than AllOfMP3. Be it Russian copyright law and all the other 'unknowns' associated with AllOfMP3 and International Copyright I am happy to ensure that if I really want to purchase an album and I WOULD like some of the money to actually go to the artist, it is anyone’s guess with AllofMP3 if this actually happens.

The price through iTunes is probably going to still be slightly higher for an entire album to download DRM Free than to actually go and purchase the CD from your local store. Though when you look at the CD in store and see it contains DRM (i.e. CopyControl) which is on both Norah Jones previous albums, I am not sure about the latest CD if it contains CopyControl. Actually buying it DRM Free from iTunes starts to become a partially practical solution.

If over the next few months EMI’s sales through iTunes of DRM Free music goes through the roof EMI will be happy, the artist will be happy, the consumer will be happy and Apple will be happy.

The fact that you have to pay a ‘premium’ for DRM Free music still sucks, though EMI are at least giving this a fair go and with some luck the other music groups Universal, Warner & SonyBMG will join the party and then we start fighting on the price. The wheels will turn slowly here but it is refreshing to see one of the ‘Big4’ having a go.

Most of the music I have purchased in the past few months has been directly from the artists website or gigs and they are on indie labels or their own labels so I know the money is going into their pocket which I am more than happy to do.

With one exception, all my "copy control" cds have been able to be ripped to iTunes straightaway with no hassles at all.
For the one copy controlled cd that did not work, I was able to simply use a different program (FreeRip) to rip the tracks, which I then added to my iTunes Library.
I guess perhaps it might prevent me from making a direct copy of the disc (not sure), but it sure doesn't stop me from ripping the tracks as .wav files then making an audio cd of the same tracks... without any "copy control"...

If it's not too expensive, like $20 or $30, I'll be upgrading all of my iTunes-purchased, 128kbps EMI tracks to the higher quality, just to encourage Apple and EMI for doing what I consider to be a good thing for music lovers. To be honest though, I only use iTunes music store as a last resort - when I can't find what I want anywhere else.

Raoul, If you need to rip the audio tracks from any Copy Controlled CD's follow the instructions on the following web site.

http://www.dsg.cs.tcd.ie/~haahrm/copying-protected-cds/