Archive May | lotusCast – The official blog & podcast from lotuspike

iTunes Plus

Yesterday, Apple rolled out **[iTunes Plus][itp]** in the iTunes US Store,
which offers higher-quality DRM-free downloads for $1.29 (a $0.30 premium over
the “standard” $0.99 download). The “Plus” downloads are DRM-free 256kbps AAC
files, playable by any device or software that supports AAC (not just iTunes
or iPods).

Lotuspike applauds this move, and agrees with Steve Jobs’
“[Thoughts On Music][tom]” post in which he indicated Apple’s position
that DRM-free music is better for consumers.

We are working with our iTunes affiliate to attempt to get our music into
the “iTunes Plus” store; at the moment, it’s not clear how independent labels
like ourselves can participate.

Meanwhile, Lotuspike music is available from other sites like
[eMusic][em] in DRM-free formats, and of course remains available
from the [iTunes Store][itms] in the standard Protected AAC format.

[itp]: http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/iTunesPlusPage
[tom]: http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughtsonmusic/
[em]: http://www.emusic.com
[itms]: http://www.apple.com/itunes/store

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Thursday, May 31st, 2007 Music No Comments

Shipping Rates

As those of you in the USA may be aware, US Postal Service postage rates
recently changed (at the beginning of May). Unfortunately the rates for
lighter First Class packages rose dramatically, and most of our CD orders fall
into this category. Domestic postage on a single-CD order rose from $1.35 to
$1.81, an increase of 34%.

In case you were wondering: Lotuspike shipping rates in the web shop are
calculated to be our exact shipping cost plus 65 cents. The 65 cents covers
the cost of the mailer boxes that we use to ship discs; it does not include
any handling fee (my time to pack the boxes and ship them out is free!). (So
the total shipping charge for a domestic single-CD order is $1.81 + $0.65, or
$2.46.)

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