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Jun 19, 08 - 01:29 pm Comment from: silverwarloc

MDN-I could not say it any better.

I'm just buying exclusively DRM-free tracks from iTunes.

Nothing is so alluring as revenue only your competition gets.

Typical uneducated CNET FUD. I stopped reading their useless drivel years ago because of bullsh*t pieces like this one. This idiot has obviously not kept track of what has been going on for the last couple of years. If it weren't for Steve Jobs, there still wouldn't be ANY songs available for download without DRM.

Jun 19, 08 - 01:53 pm Comment from: DogGone

At some point Apple may breakdown the percentage of drm and drm-free songs sold. You can be sure that they are certainly touting it to the labels if DRM-free songs are more popular.

Give it time. Apple will get their way.

Jun 19, 08 - 01:54 pm Comment from: DRM sucks

The author's thesis is that iTunes basically gives the music industry what they want and supports their current stupidity. Of course, this ignore the fact that the music industry is using DRM-free tracks on other services as a method to make iTunes less powerful.

The author also makes a clumsy attempt to link this with oberpricing, but 5 billion songs sold suggest that the $0.99 per track (with a few exceptions when an entire album is purchased and the old higher price for DRM-free tracks) is a good price point for consumers. Apple has held the line against the music industry's desire for "flexible pricing", which would not have been possible without the enormous marketshare of iTunes.

I like Apple as much as the next guy. But a more accurate headline would have been "The more powerful Amazon MP3 gets, the quicker music DRM dies". Apple is moving towards DRM-free music. And Steve Jobs deserves congratulations for his open letter on the subject. But Amazon and other services are already there. Like Microsoft and Windows, market share guarantees that Apple's iTunes Store will continue to thrive for a long time to come -- regardless of DRM.

Incidentally, I'm going to stay with CDs until a reputable service begins selling DRM-free lossless audio downloads. Similarly, I'll stay with DVD/Blu-ray until DRM-free 1080p downloads are an option.

Jun 19, 08 - 01:57 pm Comment from: Chas

What's with this comment?

"...we're paying too much for a track that's locked down worse than anything we have ever witnessed in this business."

If anything, FairPlay is the least restrictive DRM system around. Personally, DRM is an utter abortion but at least Apple have some kind of fair use policy, unlike certain other companies.

Idiots like Reisinger should mot be allowed to write anything until they have done the proper research - what a tool!

=:~)

@Predrag

MDN usually keeps stories they wish to highlight "stuck" at the top of the page and 5 billion hamburgers, oops, I mean songs, is definitely one to highlight.

Jun 19, 08 - 02:03 pm Comment from: HMCIV

OMG, Reisinger's right! I promise as soon as I get home I will trash all my iTunes downloads (especially the "+" ones from EMI) and every song with $14.99 CDs! That'll stick it to the man!

Thank you Reisinger for showing me the light!!!

Ah yes, C|Net. The lapdog of Microsoft and their indirect mouthpiece for their FUD. It's articles like this, along with the FUD article about Steve Jobs in C|Net subsidiary ZDNet that MDN published earlier today shows to me that Microsoft is desperate, and will push any FUD that they can through their minions.

For years, C|Net, news.com, ZD.Net, TechRepublic and other wholly-owned fronts for C|Net have been undertaking an almost non-stop attack on Apple. Their tone has ranged from the outright shrill ("Die Apple! Die! Die! Die!") to the more subtle forms of FUD (a Mac is okay for some users, but "serious" users and corporations should avoid them altogether). Their agenda parallels that of Microsoft, which is hardly surprising, given that Microsoft is their largest advertiser.

Lately, I have seen a couple of anti-Apple FUD themes played out via C|Net in various flavors through their different sites:

1. As Apple succeeds, it will become the new Microsoft, and will invariably become and evil and predatory monopoly.

2. iTunes has become too powerful and must be stopped. (The article above lambasts iTMS - but would they prefer a Zune-based world in which users don't own their music, but all the music has heavy DRM? C|Net conveniently fails to mention this.)

3. Die, Steve Jobs. Die. Die. Die: This is the latest and most insidious form of C|Net/Microsoft FUD. They are quietly pushing the meme that Steve Jobs' health is in serious decline, and as goes Steve, so goes Apple. It's a new wrapper for the old, "Apple is doomed" meme that C|Net pushed on hard in the 90s. There's just a few problems with this: As Fortune Magazine showed in research on survivors of pancreatic cancer, the result is often that the survivor is robust, but thin. And when I viewed the most recent keynote, Steve looked tan, not pale, and was full of energy and enthusiasm. But the tactic is both evil and clever, trying to undermine consumer and investor confidence in Apple.

It pains me to see charlatans succeed. Welcome to the dark side, folks.

It is interesting how the labels have played into Apple. Think about it- they insist on DRM, then they provide DRM free tracks to iTunes competitors, but still iTunes sales accelerate, and iPod sales dwarf the competition for years. Since people have Apple DRM laden tracks in their library, they don't bother to look at alternatives to the iPod- why would I? The iPod is great, and it would be a major pain to move to an alternative. And yet, the labels apparently think they are using DRM to punish Apple. All they are doing is cementing the lead Apple has.

So his solution is:

1. Don't buy music

2. Download pirated music

Otherwise, he's buying music as CDs or downloads. I guess Ron wants the music companies out of the music business, and that ain't happening anytime soon.

The counter argument to Don Reisinger's "opine" is very simple. Take away iTunes. If iTunes was not here, what would we have? 90% of people buying musing via some MS craportal, or WalMart website, with the Music/Movie industry at absolute control, at probably $1.99 per song, while telling the artists how they can't get paid due to the 'low profit margin'. It is precisely because iTunes stands apart from the recording industry, and is not a monopoly like WalMart or MSFT in their respective fields that people use chosen to use it. Don probably prefers the Zune too.

Jun 19, 08 - 02:38 pm Comment from: James

Exactly, freebeer. I suppose it's possible someone other than Apple could have done what iTunes has, but regardless, the alternative would have been what you've described or worse. I think we're rapidly approaching a tipping point of sorts-the Microsoft/Music Cartel model is on its very last legs. At last. I won't miss it, just as I don't miss commercial radio after swearing it off 20 years ago.

Jun 19, 08 - 02:49 pm Comment from: nekogami13

C/Net is rabidly anti-Apple.
Every article, review or comment from them regarding Apple or it's products is either down right negative or subtly slamming Apple in the text.

Why does this suprise anyone-Molly Wood called the iPhone a turd in her podcast.

Wow, it's as if Reisinger was in a time capsule for the last 6 years, and had no knowledge of the history of online music sales and DRM.

Keep the fsuking DRM on. Apple is cutting deals directly with artists now, bypassing the ace wipe labels. Soon, Apple will force the labels to lay down and take it up the ace.

Such fanboy comments. I take ping's position - I buy iTunes plus tracks only.

Nonetheless, I don't think Reisinger is demonstratably that far off here. That is, it is arguable whether he is wrong or right, but either way I like his general position and his focus on highlighting the problem that DRM is still far too present in iTunes tracks.

I don't think he's to be derided, unless you're delusionally tied to Apple's business model and profits over your own well-being as a consumer (or unless you're a shareholder ). I suppose it would help the discussion if we knew what percentage of those tracks were DRM-free, but the relative studios probably have at least some idea there....if it was really great, Apple might have trumpeted it, but there's no telling for sure.

Apple and Jobs are in this for the business though, I don't buy the argument that they are committed to eliminating DRM (as much as I would like to believe it). I do believe Job's letter was heart-felt and that Apple and Jobs would prefer DRM-free music, but a 'preference' is much different than the driving force I would prefer to see them use. MDN may be correct in that they are already using that force, if so I look forward to seeing proof of that in the relatively short-term future.

In the meantime though, record labels will NOT continue allowing DRM-free tracks if they can sell an increasing portion of DRM'ed tracks through such stores as iTunes. I think I have to agree with Reisinger on this one.

MW: wall

One simple word trumps this all...

piracy

The industry never did (has) stop music piracy. Regardless of the tactic they took, it could not stop that overwhelming force. Apple provided them with the one alternative, or better yet compromise, that allowed music to work under a manner in which money can be made.

But greed is a hard habit to break. From trying to strong arm Apple by denying it DRM-free music to CD-locking methods to copyright subpoenas to industry-friendly subscriptions, the music moguls have tried vainly to recoup billions they once made.

And all it does or will ever do is push people back to piracy. One of these days, through good sense or cold financial reality, these guys will be forced to swallow that the old days ain't never coming back!

/

Jun 19, 08 - 04:10 pm Comment from: BiZarRo BaLlmEr

I tried looking for the song Hocus Pocus by Focus at Amazon and it's was not a successful search. Amazon is an awful, awful store to browse/search. Just makes me appreciate iTunes all the more.
Found the song/artist in no time in iTunes.

Jun 19, 08 - 04:23 pm Comment from: Gandalf

MDN says, "Apple CEO Steve Jobs called for DRM-free music well over a year ago". Yes he did in public, in private negotiations (not so private afterwards) with the record labels he did so BEFORE the launch of the iTunes Store.

As for labels, they are what you stick on crap products:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=xtEsSdP6sR8

Jun 19, 08 - 06:21 pm Comment from: Macromancer

This notion that DRM is diminishing sales in any significant way is ludicrous. Most people don't know what DRM even is, much less choose not to buy it as a result.

And to say it's locked down is another myth. Burn a CD. Problem solved. That was real hard wasn't it.

I've been buying iTunes since day one and haven't once run into the DRM restriction. Articles like this are nothing more than link-bait.

Jun 19, 08 - 09:36 pm Comment from: Scott in Japan

@BeeNice

You seem to be under the impression that Aple is not TRYING to sell DRM-free music. In fact they are. Despite the implied POWER that Apple supposedly has to bend the labels at will, they do not. They; like us, are subject to the continuing idocy of the music industry. As MDN stated in their Take, the music industry is on a warpath against Apple despite Apple having made buying music vs stealing an easy and acceptable process. The fact that they withhold DRM-free music from Apple all the while giving it to 'competing' services is proof of this.

What is the big deal with DRM? I have over 3000 songs in my iTunes library, most from my CD collection but also several hundred purchased from the iTunes store. I do not EVER recall any problem with listening to any of the songs on any of my Macs, iPod, or iPhone. I have transferred song files back and forth and burned quite a few CDs.

What are you trying to do that the DRM will not let you do? Is it legal? Or, do you just dislike that someone puts limits on you?

Well, I must go to sleep. I have a job which limits my time to do what I want. I must pay bills which limits how much I can spend on myself. And on, and on, .......... Quitcha griping

Couldnt apple just remove the fairplay DRM if from all their tracks if they chose to? In pretty sure that (correct me if I'm wrong) if the music labels sued apple for doing so, apple could sue the record labels for unfair business practices by allowing other stores to offer DRM-free tracks and not iTunes? I'm pretty sure that a jury would be on apple's side. Of course, that just me, an uneducated "child" who "doesn't know anything about law or business."

One account. 5 computers. Unlimited numbers of iPods. 10 burns of a playlist of purchased music.

Keep the attributes in mind while whiny, ignorant bought-and-paid-for shills denounce iTunes as "locked down worse than anything we have ever witnessed in this business". The level of stupidity is staggering. And these jerkoffs think they qualify as tech writers.

Magic Word: 'life', as in "Whiny tech morons paid to irritate should get a life"

Jun 20, 08 - 01:35 am Comment from: Scott in Japan

@confused

No, they couldn't do that. In removing the DRM they would be breaking agreements made with the record lables.

I debated with myself for a long time before authorizing my iTunes album "None-Too-Great Hits" to be listed as DRM-free, but my reasoning is very different. The album is home-made and not the sonic equal of the big studio productions, so I was afraid that whoever might buy my album would be disappointed after having paid extra for it, and I certainly don't want to turn off any potential fans. When I first authorized DRM-free, I thought Apple was going to offer both options at both prices, but that turned out not to be the case.

Jun 20, 08 - 07:28 am Comment from: whoitis

I've been buying from amazon. I love apple, but I also like 256k and DRM free.

pablo, the big deal with DRM is that you WILL be effected. Whether you care or not is up to you, but just because you haven't burned yet doesn't mean you won't be.

Yes, the iTunes DRM is the closest to reasonable package that there is (besides no DRM, of course). That still doesn't mean it's "good enough". I have been burned already by it. I'm not particularly angry - I was too lazy to properly back up and make copies, etc etc... but I haven't had that problem with my eMusic collection because there was no DRM in the way and it was just plain easier to work with. iTunes DRM gets in the way occasionally because THAT IS ITS' JOB.

So now I only buy iTunes Plus or nothing. Oh, and I spend significantly less on music because I don't want to buy some crapped-up CD either (good job, Sony, on helping ruin sales for everyone by making consumers not trust what they're going to get). So pretty much, the recording industry has given up a nice chunk of revenue from me, and they'll only get it back when they give up on DRM and stop abusing me, their paying customer.

Oh, and I still don't pirate music. I don't believe that's right either. I just listen to the radio, find a DRM-free version, or go without....you do know that we can live without music if we have to, right?

iTunes DRM can be cracked with some DRM converters

Such as this Media Converter

http://www.wmatomp3-converter.com/digital-media-converter-pro.html