I've long suspected that Steve Jobs leaned this way.

http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughtsonmusic/

IMHO, the FairPlay system was middle ground necessary for online music sales to start. Good for Apple, good for the labels, and most recently good for individual artists.

So far, so good.

I've personally used the iTunes store. It was a solid experience. Price a bit high, but not so high that it was a problem.

Know what was?

DRM

I no longer buy *anything* with DRM on it. Having to replace my iPod, deal with licenses (some of which I just lost and had to crack the files in order to continue to play them on my new player), lock-in in general really did not sit well.

My source for music today is either from the artist directly, ripped from a CD, or AllOfMp3.com.

This is perhaps the best music store on the net. It's in Russia and is underselling and that's all bad. But every other thing about this site just rocks. I get the music I want, it plays on whatever player I choose, I get to pick the bitrates and quality all the way up to raw sound files and pay by the megabyte.

Slowly the battle to open stuff up is being won. If there is less friction between producer and seller, more will be sold period.

Anyway, read these musings from Jobs. It's good, thought provoking stuff.

I don't even bother with I-Tunes (compatibility), fileswap programmes like Kazaa (sound quality) or those other things. For MPEG3 audio recording I'm strictly DIY! My source of music today is ripped directly off CDs, recorded from records (seriously) or downlinked from Muzak.

I was using I-Tunes for a while several years ago [circa 2003/2004] and really wasn't at all impressed. It seems nowdays if you want full compatibility and the highest sound quality (which for me involves sample rates of 44100 and constant bitrates of 320, stereophonic) D'ingIY is pretty much the only option.

That, and the LAME system is a GODSEND.

Bah, licensing and service lock-ins, who needs all a'dat?

Trouble with encryption software is that they are easily broken. Reportedly all the Macrovisions have been foiled, Fairplay has been foiled and even DVD copyprotection is pretty much useless. A lot of time and money are wasted developing these blocks, only to have them broken, sometimes not too long after development--by enterprising h4x0rz and programmers! (Possibly the only one I can think of that hasn't been broken [yet] is the Digicipher system, commonly used for scrambling on digital cable and satellite channels.)

So other than a false sense of security for the labels, why do they even bother? Just seems counter-productive to me............

As far as I am concerned, when you buy a recording, either in disc, tape or computer file formats, you have the rights to that copy and as such, should be allowed to play it on any device you want and as many times as you like until.....the cows come home, pretty much!

That's why I feel CDs and even (to some degree) vinyl are still highly viable formats.....

Quote:
"The third alternative is to abolish DRMs entirely. Imagine a world where every online store sells DRM-free music encoded in open licensable formats. In such a world, any player can play music purchased from any store, and any store can sell music which is playable on all players. This is clearly the best alternative for consumers, and Apple would embrace it in a heartbeat. If the big four music companies would license Apple their music without the requirement that it be protected with a DRM, we would switch to selling only DRM-free music on our iTunes store. Every iPod ever made will play this DRM-free music."

This would be a very desirable scenario but hardly one I think any labels or record companies would be likely to pursue. While this has been a very big success in Europe, due to stricter economic regulations, it probably wouldn't fly in the US where economic/corporate regulations seem to be getting more and more laxed every day. Reason being? They aren't getting "their" money out of each play, despite the fact that the user already paid for his copy to begin with, and as such would just whine like a bunch of corporate crybabies until they get their $.25 worth or however much they get.

It all comes down to money with these people.....who cares about fairness or the right to enjoy music? It's all about the almighty dollar. Shameful.


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The opinions and soapbox rantings expressed by Motozak are his own and do not necessarily represent those of the record industries, Apple or any other parties he analyses to seemingly no end. Matter of fact sometimes he's just plain biased or outright wrong! But these are serious issues that do tend to weigh heavily on Motozak's mind and for the sake of his health and possibly everyone elses, he does need to vent them from time to time.....
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