iTunes Store
Ranked 2 of 3 music stores by recommenders
Recommended for DRM-free music you can download and keep, including lossless files; the common caveat is purchased movies and music disappearing from accounts.
Recommended for DRM-free music you can download and keep, including lossless files; the common caveat is purchased movies and music disappearing from accounts.
33 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 18
- criticize it
- 15
- approval share
- 55%
Recommended in 7 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 18 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1.2 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 7 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
DRM-free music downloads you keep
“they ditched DRM on music in that time period too and will sell you lossless ALAC as well as MP4 audio”
Comment from 1 Jun 2026 on Hacker News “I can buy DRM free music from the iTunes Store, download the files, and they're mine.”
Comment from 27 Jun 2026 in “If You Can't Hold It, You Don't Own It” “With Apple, you can at least download the media you bought and keep it.”
Comment from 27 Jun 2026 in “PlayStation Is Deleting 551 Movies from Customers' Accounts” - Comment from 27 Jun 2026 in “PlayStation Is Deleting 551 Movies from Customers' Accounts”
- Comment from 18 Sep 2026 in “Microsoft exec called AI scraping 'the largest theft of labor in human history'”
Easy, reasonable-priced music purchases
“if you give people and easy and convenient way to pay a reasonable price for music/movies”
Comment from 5 Jul 2026 in “Google Books (or similar) all book scans – $200k bounty” “I still prefer purchasing tracks via the iTunes Music Store”
Comment from 21 Dec 2025 in “Backing up Spotify” “I have fond memories of buying those 99 cents songs”
Comment from 30 Jun 2026 in “Studio Canal Movies purchased on PlayStation Store removed without refund” - Comment from 10 Sep 2026 in “The same nine streaming subscriptions cost $702/year more than in 2021”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Purchased content removed from accounts
“iTunes recognised it, linked it to the matching official entry in their music store, they lost the licence and deleted all customer copies including mine.”
Comment from 1 Jun 2026 in “The Pirate Bay Remains Resilient, 20 Years After the Raid” “I've had movies I've "bought" disappear from the Apple account.”
Comment from 1 Jun 2026 in “The Pirate Bay Remains Resilient, 20 Years After the Raid” “all UK purchased content was gone from my itunes account”
Comment from 23 Oct 2026 in “Disney Raising Prices Days After Confirming Ads Will Now Show Up on Every Tier” - Comment from 1 Dec 2025 in “Netflix kills casting from its mobile app to most modern TVs”
Neglected store, sidelined for years
“Apple has neglected the iTunes store for years. Yes, you can still buy tracks, but it's really crappy.”
Comment from 9 Dec 2025 in “Cassette tapes are making a comeback?” “sidelining the iTunes store where you could buy songs”
Comment from 6 Feb 2026 in “I Now Assume That All Ads on Apple News Are Scams” Movies restricted to certain devices
“Of course buying a movie on itunes means you can only watch it on capable devices.”
Comment from 1 Jun 2026 in “The Pirate Bay Remains Resilient, 20 Years After the Raid” “my purchasing decision wasn't influenced by how many use cases it would restrict”
Comment from 1 Jun 2026 in “The Pirate Bay Remains Resilient, 20 Years After the Raid”
Other music stores people recommend
The two most recommended other music stores, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
See all 3 music stores, rankedWhat people said
31 of the 33 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“all UK purchased content was gone from my itunes account”
“Apple has done this for subscriptions that collect money through the iTunes store. It's awesome.”
“I hate that they keep pestering me for rent for their subscription service.”
“Now we have iTunes Store and Bandcamp for DRM free music”
“I have purchased around 20,000 songs in my life.”
“very very few people use it”
“I believe that the iTunes client got Atom support, but not the iTunes Music Store”
“forcing them do the physical CD ripping and entering metadata is really the final authority”
“That's a lot of unpaid mental gymnastics you're doing there to excuse Apple of their trademark shitty behaviour”
“licensed media like this are always going to become inaccessible over decades”
“because they could type the name of that song and then listen to it right away”
“if you give people and easy and convenient way to pay a reasonable price for music/movies”
“I have fond memories of buying those 99 cents songs”
“I still have access to the copy of Cars I bought almost 20 years ago from Apple.”
“you buy on iTunes, where they let you download DRM-free copies”
“I can buy DRM free music from the iTunes Store, download the files, and they're mine.”
“With Apple, you can at least download the media you bought and keep it.”
“iTunes recognised it, linked it to the matching official entry in their music store, they lost the licence and deleted all customer copies including mine.”
“I've had movies I've "bought" disappear from the Apple account.”
“It's intentionally misleading and contradictory.”
“Of course buying a movie on itunes means you can only watch it on capable devices.”
“my purchasing decision wasn't influenced by how many use cases it would restrict”
“I'm happy to buy music from Apple, but movies require another level of trust that they haven't reached yet.”
“they ditched DRM on music in that time period too and will sell you lossless ALAC as well as MP4 audio”
“non-subscription) = zero ads and offline viewing”
“sidelining the iTunes store where you could buy songs”
“I still prefer purchasing tracks via the iTunes Music Store”
“it was successful because they satisfied the market's key demand”
“Apple has neglected the iTunes store for years. Yes, you can still buy tracks, but it's really crappy.”
“All my purchased music on iTunes disappeared.”
“you often could see JS error messages or weird rendering errors / flickering”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.