MacDailyNews - Where Mac news comes first

Great!,
signs that the cartel is finally going to crack.

I certainly hope this is true. I hate to purchase mp3s when AAC is clearly better.

Btw. thank you again, Mr. Jobs, for not conceding to the Middlebronfmans (sp?) of the world that would have forced us to live in a world of filler music. You certainly didn't have to take a stand like you did, and I appreciate the fact that you did, unflinching. I like the option of picking any songs I like from any album and if I want to I'll occasionally buy the concept albums then it will be my choice. Certainly the artist's choice is not suppressed here, as no one is holding a gun to their heads, and they can also start their own distribution channel or choose not to have the music available on iTunes. But forcing the users to albums only sale, well, until the iTunes insistence came about the user's had indeed the only option - to consume or not to consume. Just not feasible a business plan where the whole premise is to rip off people.

Sony is taking its cues from the Japanese soldiers living in jungles all over the Asia who finally surrendered years AFTER the war was officially declared over.

Nov 10, 08 - 10:56 am Comment from: Mr. Peabody

It's about time - Now, go thou and sin no more.

Sony has finally smartened up, to try and stop the bleeding(money they are loosing)
Apple to the rescue.

That would make Middlebum and Uniasshole part of the the "Mercenary & Idiotical Complex" that Jobs warned us about....

To the people above, please remeber this is only a rumour at the moment so don't wave your hands in the air just yet.

If true this will be great for the customer & great for the music industry as well. I'm sure the labels will see a significant increase in sales once they go DRM free. I don't buy from iTunes if it has DRM on and will only buy a CD if I really like the artist.

Let's keep our fingers crossed.

Or is this a way of hedging during a economic downturn.

Nov 10, 08 - 01:09 pm Comment from: Cubert

Where has the Justice Department been on this monopoly abuse demonstrated by the music companies? The reasons for their differing terms of use between online music stores is obvious.

@Cubert
Perhaps a newly elected executive branch will things differently. Watch out Micro$oft; the government needs money!

Nov 10, 08 - 03:30 pm Comment from: ken1w

With the exception of Steve Jobs writing open letters for some smart PR, I don't think Apple has been pushing the labels too hard on the going DRM-free issue. The iTunes Store is succeeding with the current DRM in place (because it is seamless and invisible for iPod users) and with the current lower bit-rate files (because most people can't tell the difference).

Why take on the higher bandwidth expenses of serving up larger files? Why allow makers of non-iPod music players to suddenly declare "now compatible with iTunes Store purchases"? Apple has no business incentive to remove the DRM.

It's the record labels who should be demanding Apple only sell 256 kbps file with no DRM, to weaken the iPod / iTunes Store connection. Instead, Apple has cleverly manipulated the situation (as usual) to make the record labels believe keeping the DRM is actually hurting Apple (obviously not the case) and to make the record labels the bad guys in the public's perception.

If this rumor is true, looks like Sony is playing it smart.