“Imagine buying a CD at Best Buy only to discover that it won’t work on the CD player you bought at Circuit City. Absurd as it sounds, this sort of situation is the rule rather than the exception in the world of legally downloaded music. This maze of incompatible standards is a threat to online services such as Apple Computer’s iTunes Music Store,” Stephen H. Wildstrom writes for BusinessWeek.
“The situation is both baffling and infuriating. My iPod can play all the MP3s I rip from CDs or pull from KaZaA (if I used it), but when it comes to legal downloads, it works only with the iTunes store. The Roku SoundBridge that connects my stereo to my computer’s stash of digital music can play everything in my iTunes library that I digitized myself — MP3s and the like — but not iTunes Music Store purchases. Similarly, other players handle only music bought from a specific service,” Wildstrom writes.
“Microsoft holds the high cards in this game. Much as I hate to see the colossus of Redmond end up dominating yet another market, I believe that is going to happen, and given the current state of affairs, it may be the best outcome for consumers,” Wildstrom writes. “In the end, what consumers care about is getting the music… they want and having it play without hassles on the device of their choice. Microsoft’s big-tent approach offers a way out of this morass for everyone, except perhaps Apple.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Reality check time: over 90 percent of the players in actual people’s hands today are iPods. The iTunes Music Store works on both Mac and Windows and holds over 70 percent of the online music download market. Songs that aren’t available via iTMS can be purchased on CDs and ripped to your PC or Mac iTunes and then transferred to your iPod. Why would people use the Microsoft WMA “solution” when over 90 percent of them can’t use it on their player of choice, Apple’s iPod?
“The situation is both baffling and infuriating.” Yeah, to Microsoft perhaps, not to consumers. While Wildstrom’s theories might look vaguely plausible on first glance, but they just don’t stand up to the reality that Apple is currently moving over one million iPods into consumers’ hands every 30 days. That’s over 1,000,000 fewer people shackled to Microsoft with every month that rolls by. Microsoft had better hurry up with this domination before they run out of potential customers.
Wildstrom wrote, “In the end, what consumers care about is getting the music… they want and having it play without hassles on the device of their choice.” They already have that, they’ve overwhelmingly chosen iPod and they can get the music they want with the most seamless choices available today – Apple’s iTunes Music Store or a CD ripped to iTunes. If Apple keeps executing as they have with iPod + iTunes, Microsoft has already lost; some people just can’t seem to be able to wrap their minds around that reality, yet. Look at it this way: which cards in this game is Microsoft really holding today? Tens of affiliated digital music players that almost nobody is buying and tens of online stores that sell files that don’t work with the player almost everybody is buying. Doesn’t look like a winning hand to us.
the solution is obvious…. buy the CD anywhere… and rip it to MP3 format…..
Last I heard… iTunes / iPod still plays MP3s
These writers are idiots.
The only valid point to be made is Apple has everything to lose and MS has everything to gain.
It remains to be seen if Apple is playing it’s cards right. I personally think they are.
If the music industry had not demanded DRM, wouldn’t Apple have used non protected MP3s or AACs? I don’t think Apple would lose much by opening up their online music business, but for now, there isn’t much reason to do so. The drama continues…
Better yet rip your CDs into AAC and get better sound for the same amount of compression – and it will still play on both Macs and PCs
Apple should license FairPlay and make it the world standard. What if, in the future, a different service offers a product or band or price that is not available via iTunes? It won’t work on your iPod. If a consumer wants to choose to buy a song or file through a competitor they can’t use it on their iPod. That seems like a communist verses free approach. We know what is best for you and that is all we will allow you to have.
If you love something set it free – and it will come back (or something like that)
I think MDN should specify that the 90% figure relates to HDD-based players. Not all types.
Anyway, this writer sounds kinda like a relation to Thurrott than anything else.
BTW: What ever happened to Enderle? He hasn’t ben writing nonsense like he used to. Or did I just miss all of it?
Sounds to me as if this “Roku SoundBridge ” gadget is Mr. Wildstrom’s real problem.
I wrote a polite email to Mr. Wildstrom:
techandyou@businessweek.com
I laid out Apple’s four aces (market share, market share, market share, and ease of use), and asked where he thought Microsoft was going to get a straight flush from.
I’ll let you know if I get a reply.
Mike
@ mac dood.
yeah you�re right, but you�re not fscked like german customers:
Virtually all CDs you can buy here in germany are copyprotected. – A lot of those copyprotection schemes lead to either only being able to import music at 32kb or not to being able to play (and import) them at all on a Mac. (Being nice as the recording industry is in germany, they at least tell you on the back of the cover).
That�s why I�m “stealing” the music I don�t find at the iTMS and which is not available on non-copyprotected CDs. :((
let’s see if this really makes sense. Would it make anymore sense to say that Apple with their small OS share be charged with bringing order to the windows world because it would be best for the consumer.
On second thought, that does make sense at least on the Apple taking over Windows.
If IBM can lose the PC wars, Microsoft can lose the MP3 Wars – “Return of the Jedi”!!!
reality check… MS can broker iTunes killing deals with Bill Gates’ pocket change.
reality check… I remember when the Apple II had 90% of the business PC market.
“MS can broker iTunes killing deals with Bill Gates’ pocket change. “
ahem..if you can back that up with anything not so closely resembling frail conjecture, you can have a job at Microsoft..
“I remember when the Apple II had 90% of the business PC market.”
Hmm.. back when Apple was interested in the business market?
Sometimes when a writer can’t think of anything to write about, they make something up. Everyone can have an off-day. He was probably hung-over and some Microsoftie caught his ear between coffee and the toilet. Don’t be too tough on the poor guy. And please don’t shout! Ow.
AppleWorks X
“It’s like Microsoft Office for the rest of your iLife.
Come on Steve, get an Office Killer released, or at least hint you are planning to
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”wink” style=”border:0;” />
“……@ mac dood.
yeah you�re right, but you�re not fscked like german customers:
Virtually all CDs you can buy here in germany are copyprotected……”
matt…
Just curious…. Awhile back, I remember reading an article explaining that the certain copy-protected music CDs could be defeated by using a black felt -tipped marker… I wonder if this would work for the CDs you have to deal with ?
Also… I have never run into a music CD I couldnt rip on my OS 9 machine… even those with some sort of a copy protection scheme … but then again, the CDs in your country might be a horse of a different color ..
Let’s see:
Critics love the iPod. Consumers agree.
Critics love iTMS. Consumers agree.
What’s the problem? Here’s the thing. When people buy music, they buy the format which will work best for the player the have. Most people who have a DMP have an iPod. Therefore they buy from iTMS. I don’t see consumers complaining about iTMS. They have the best set up, and the biggest selection.
Two analogies:
1. Your favorite listening device is a CD player. You have two music stores in your neighborhood, right next to each other. One sells only CDs and one sells only cassettes. Which will you go to?
2. You have two music stores in your neighborhood, both right next to each other. They both stock all formats of music and they have a similar selection, however, store A is clean, well kept, and you can always find exactly what you want, plus there are helpful employees who make great suggestions on other things you may like. Store B is always a mess. Nothing is organized and you really have to dig to find anything. And, the salespeople act like you’re a nuisance when you ask for help. Where would you rather shop?
I don’t recall a single review of online stores ever saying the experience was better than Apple’s. The only reason to buy at another store would be if you were dumb enough to buy a DMP that was not an iPod.
“Sounds to me as if this ‘Roku SoundBridge’ gadget is Mr. Wildstrom’s real problem.”
True. However…
Roku’s Soundbridge gets good reviews as a wireless music to home stereo streamer, even in Mac magazines. It seems to be a good unit with the exception that it can not stream iTunes AAC files. It has good looks, display advantages, and a REMOTE control.
Sure, the author would have fewer problems if he were using an Airport Express, but the ball’s in Apple’s court to provide a display and, above all, the REMOTE control that home users want in all AV components. (When was the last time you bought a TV without a remote?) Even an iPod plugged directly into a stereo receiver doesn’t have a remote control that will work from your living room sofa, much less from another room.
Of course, the Airport Express can do things the Roku unit can not do and it’s about 1/2 the price. However, as part of a home theater/stereo system, the “What’s playing” display and the remote control are essential. That explains the author’s choice and frustration.
It’s time for Apple to provide with the “whole widget”, not just to control it.
Yeah, right. As soon as Longhorn becomes commercially available, look out, world.
I would think that most people have waited 10 years too long for Longhorn and are not entirely willing to wait any longer.
Why do I have the impression that Microsoft’s most significant offerings are rumors and promises versus products?
The most annoying part is that there have been many instances of copy-protected CDs not playing in standard players. His example is foolish because it is true, not false as he asserts.
After much thinking, I am glad that FairPlay hasn’t been licensed out. If it had, it would be one step closer to being embedded in every CD sold. At least for now, CD’s are still ‘open’.
As long as digital music players do not become a commodity item like portable cassette players and portable cd players became, then Apple has nothing to worry about. The day that flash memory becomes supercheap and at least 5GB of storage is the day Apple’s iPod will lose share.
Just PIR (backwards for rip) to a CD (with iTunes, it’s even easy on Windows) and it will play everywhere!
You should do that for backup anyway.
Back-up back-up back-up and be happy, happy, happy!
Now is I was only smart enough to practice what I preach, life would be beautiful.
Sorry, MDN, the only way to win a war is to fight it. You don’t win by covering your ears and singing Mary Had a Little Lamb, no matter your current market share.
Apple’s failure to license Fairplay to other companies for incorporation in *players* is perfectly logical. However, Apple’s reluctance to license Fairplay to peripheral manufacturers is idiotic–why would you NOT want your format to be the center of third party development, which Fairplay would be if Apple aggresively licensed it? Apple’s reluctance to license Fairplay to other online music retailers is also at best questionable–however, what really takes the cake for insanity is Apple’s failure to license Fairplay to cd manufacturers. If you bought a CD and it included Fairplay-protected AAC’s of all the tracks on the CD, that would be great for the consumer AND for Apple.