DRM-free threats bounce off iTunes' chest
To unseat iTunes as lord of digital music, challengers are falling over themselves to strip copy protections off music.
Apple's iTunes still wraps most of its music in digital rights management software, and the latest to try to exploit this perceived vulnerability is RealNetwork's Rhapsody. The music service, which has up to now focused on renting music through subscriptions, is expected to announce Monday that it will start selling DRM-free songs.
This means that Rhapsody's music will play on iPods and many other digital players. In addition, Rhapsody has teamed with Verizon Wireless and will offer customers with specific V Cast phones the ability to download unprotected music.
By selling downloads, Rhapsody opens its service up to two important groups: those who don't like subscription services, and owners of devices that were once incompatible with Rhapsody.
But increasingly, one can't help but catch a whiff of staleness surrounding open-MP3 offers. Besides Amazon.com, others offering at least some DRM-free music are Wal-Mart and Napster. MySpace also has plans to offer MP3s.
Amazon began offering open MP3s last September and there hasn't been much movement of the needle. Amazon's digital music store is growing but not at the expense of Apple, NPD Group said in April.
The issue of DRM only counts when iPod owners can't play iTunes music on other devices they care about. Which ones are those, you ask?
That's the point. There aren't any.
I'd be really steamed at Apple CEO Steve Jobs if my iTunes music were incompatible with some must-have cell phone, home-entertainment system, or car stereo. If there were something that his DRM-scheme locked me out of, then I might look for an iTunes alternative.
I don't have this problem because there isn't anything that compelling out there. The big digital home-entertainment system that will enable me to throw video, music, and photos around my house, still hasn't arrived.
When I'm at home and don't want to listen with headphones on, I plug my iPhone into speakers. As for cell phones, U.S. consumers just don't listen to music on them. The sticking points, such as memory, battery power, and poor user interface, haven't been worked out.
Remember, Apple didn't become an all-powerful music company just because of iTunes. Jobs was successful because of the total package: the player as well as a great music store. He made it easier to find, buy, and listen to music. And now, many of us are accustomed and comfortable with iTunes.
To pull us away, somebody has to offer a great new device and service that can do all these things and more. Or else why jump?
All this is no easy task, of course. (See Zune).
Greg Sandoval covers media and digital entertainment for CNET News. He is a former reporter for The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times. E-mail Greg.
1. It's available outside the US
2. It's available for the Mac
3. It plays nicely with iTunes and my iPod
Apparently Amazon is expecting to take their music store outside the US pretty soon so I'll give that a bash and see how it compares. Principally, I'll be interested to see what it's selection is like relative to iTunes Plus and also how enjoyable the overall experience is, from finding what it is I want, to finally listening to it on my iPod.
As far as DRM is concerned, the people who care have largely given up. All popular music now (and certainly everything recent enough to be on the iTunes store) is destroyed by dynamic compression (the LOUDNESS WAR, not data compression) anyway. There is no reason to own a high-quality stereo system except to watch movies or listen to music mastered before 1997 or so.
Ignorance and stupidity have destroyed our entire musical heritage. If they want to lock down these ruined recordings, then big damn deal.
That is UTTER NONSENSE. There isn't a single recording with dynamic compression in the realm of art music (also known as jazz and classical music). Mind you, if you are not listening to art music (jazz and classical) then there is no point in good quality sound anyway because the popular music is crap to begin with.
Besides, the popular music of today is always following a simple pattern that anybody can imitate, it does no longer take skilled musicians to make such music, you can do it yourself on a PC and more and more people do just that, then share their music freely. That amateur made music sounds just the same as the professional music of the same kind. The difference is that the amateur made music is free, so why would anybody want to pay for this type of music is beyond me.
From now on I only plan to purchase DRM free media.
Sorry Apple ;)
Also, it's blindingly easy to convert DRM iTunes songs to mp3 or other formats.
If my purchase receipts (or a database maintained by the places where I bought the music) could be presented in the future to re-download the same music for a different device or just restore a corrupted local music library without making me purchase it all again then I frankly wouldn't care that it was DRM.
The labels seem to be hell-bent on the DRM to protect themselves, but don't care to do anything to provide relief to the consumer for the risk they take by purchasing music that's locked to a limited list of devices. Then they wonder why consumers don't want to cooperate.
The quality is FAR better at Amazon (256 bit vs 128) and it's not at all locked down. There's no reason to buy from iTunes anymore. I do like browsing through the mixes at iTunes but I switch over to Amazon to make my purchase.
Also, you can deauthorize your old computer and authorize a new computer. Actually, you can authorize up to 5 computers at a time to play your music. Do you want to play your music on 5 computers at a time?
Sounds like you just didn't read the instructions.
Did you buy "MP3" files from the iTunes Store or did you buy "Protected AAC" files?
Category #1 -- Music I had on vinyl before CDs became available
Much of this music I would like to replace, that is, I'd like to get it on CD. Unfortunately, most of that which I haven't been able to replace yet is no longer available, "out of print", not only not available on CD but also not available at any legal online store.
When the change from vinyl to CD happened in 1981 or 1982, I had about 250 LPs and back then I could not afford to replace them all swiftly. By the time I was able to afford it, much of the music either was no longer available on CD or it had never been made available on CD at all.
In addition to not being able to purchase this music anywhere (other than on vinyl) I am still upset about the fact that I had to pay the full price again when I did replace some of it with the very same recording on CD. The recording industry says that the purchase price of an LP or CD is not for the material but for the right to listen to the music, a sort of royalty. However, if I paid my royalties already for a given recording, should I not be given a discount when I upgrade the media on which the recording is kept, say from LP to CD?! There should have been an upgrade program a la "Trade-in your LP and get 50% off the price of the same recording on CD".
The only place to go for this music is second hand CD stores, if the music has even be released on CD, that is. Otherwise it is hoping that the stupid recording company executives will eventually figure out that they could make some money on re-releasing this music, either on CD or online at least.
Category #2 -- Classical music and some Jazz, too
With the advent of CDs I started to buy more classical music, especially digital recordings, not remastered ones. Many years later and I have a large classical library from the baroque period to contemporary classical and jazz, so large that in fact I can no longer shop in any ordinary shop because what they carry I already have. I am looking for the rare stuff which is extremely difficult to get. For example, music by composers who were murdered by the Nazis in the holocaust, many of those composers made some awsome music, yet it is difficult to find CDs, the labels are more insterested to record the same stuff over and over and over again. Do I want to buy yet another recording of Beethoven's 9th symphony? No, I don't !!!!!
Again, little luck buying such music online and yet again, the best places to get lucky are second hand CD stores.
Category #3 -- Modern pop music, for example Techno
Maybe it's the age, but I can't figure out how to find what I like in a CD store, I never know the names of artists and to be quite honest, most of this music is trash, only once in a while does one find something worth listening to. Do I want to take my chances and buy 10 CDs of which then perhaps I only like one or two? No, I don't !!!!! Luckily, most of this music is so monotone that listening to 10 seconds reveals the entire piece and so it is entirely sufficient to judge a track by the short 10-30 seconds listening samples. Here online stores like iTunes come in handy. However, why pay for this kind of music anyway? I found many sites where amateur musicians make the same kind of music on their computers and make it available free of charge on music sharing sites. There is nothing illegal about it, it's just amateurs who upload their do-it-yourself made music for the enjoyment of others for no charge. Yes, some of that music sounds amateurish, but a lot of it sounds as professional as the professionally made techno stuff you have to pay for. So, I no longer bother to even find commercially offered techno, I simply browse the sharing sites for amateur made offerings.
At the end of the day, no matter how I look at it, neither online music stores nor traditional CD stores sell what I am interested in, and if they do, I can get the same kind of music legally free of charge elsewhere.
Maybe, the day will come when rock and pop music of the 60s, 70s and early 80s previously available on LP but not available on CD now nor available online now, will be re-released. If that day comes, I will be buying some of it again. Until then, I buy second hand where the opportunity arises.
Maybe, the day will come when undiscovered classical music which hasn't already been recorded 300 times over, will be widely available in music stores. If that day comes, I might be interested in buying music again. Until then, I buy second hand CDs of the rare stuff when I find it.
Of course in second hand sales there is no money in it for the artists nor for the recording companies. I wonder why these guys are afraid that their own back-catalog.
Maybe, the day will come when modern popular music is again made by professional artists instead of one-trick-pony wannabes who can't even outperform the amateurs of their genre. If that day comes, I might be interested to buy music again. Until then, I download from amateurs who give their music away.
What's Your Point?
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by ballmerisanape
July 1, 2008 9:41 AM PDT
- howclever, Apple offers over 2 million DRM-free music tracks in its iTunes Store (from EMI and many independent labels). In fact, it was Apple CEO Steve Jobs who called for the end of music DRM in the first place.
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Reply to this comment
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See all 25 Comments >>Apple's use of DRM music is actually less restrictive than other music services. Can you even "authorize" other computers to play DRM music files from the service you use?
I'm not dissing Rhapsody, but this article.. and its headline.. suggests that Apple doesn't even sell DRM-free music.. which is incorrect.