Will I Have Access to My Purchased iTunes Songs Over My Lifetime?

We read that Apple has a 5-computer rule for how many computers we can access our purchased iTunes songs.

What's not clear to me is this: Does the rule only apply to concurrent computers, ones we're using now, or all computers, so that after five computers into the future I'll no longer have access to my purchased iTunes products?

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Comments

[Jesse]

Deauthorize your old computers. http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT6283

[herculodge]

Thanks, Jesse. No reason to have authorization on a dead computer.

[Bill DeFelice]

@Jeff: Unless you have old songs that are still encoded in Apple's Fairplay copy protection your recently purchased music should be in a non-protected format. I still have backup discs full of older songs that I never bothered to unlock via iTunes.

@Jesse: I would think at this point deauthorizing a computer is pretty much for apps only.

[Angelo]

I still buy CDs. In fact, somehow, I never bought Donald Fagen's "The Nightfly" so I just found it on vinyl. Still have two turntable component systems in my house!

[herculodge]

For me, space is an issue. Buying books and CDs is almost impossible. Have to go digital. Bummer.