And, take the empeg, you don't have to pay for the latest software upgrade for that, do you?

I don't think it's fair to compare firmware upgrades to software upgrades.

Also, could you give me more info on the "limit" you're talking about with MusicMatch? If you've bought the Plus version and entered your key, you shouldn't be getting any nag screens, unless you're using a pirate key.

We haven't yet implemented actual checking for using old keys in newer versions (although it's coming soon), so you should be able to use your older key (from as far back as 4.x) in the new 7.0.