Linked by Thom Holwerda on Tue 6th Feb 2007 21:55 UTC, submitted by Francis Kuntz
Steve Jobs writes: "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."
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Member since:
2006-03-12
I hate to come across as a summarizer or parrot, but a lot of the backtalk in here really doesn't hold up against what Jobs said. The best evidence of his sincerity is just how liberal a DRM scheme it already is. The numbers are right in the article: five computers (read: installations of iTunes) and unlimited iPods and CDs can play your downloads. You could probably be sued for being caught with fewer copies of your retail CDs. You can bet he had to fight tooth and nail for that.
The amount of DRMed music per iPod statistic also serves to dispel the idea that Apple (especially with regards to iPod sales) is somehow thriving on the fact that the system is locked. All the stores going pure MP3 would probably let a lot of the air out of the iTMS bubble (the notion that having an iPod locks you to iTMS does hold a few drops of water), but from the sound of things, the current success has Apple spending way too many resources and sleepless nights on keeping FairPlay in its pen.
And for those who aren't bothering to RTA, I'll add here that licensing FairPlay means more leaks, and more leaks means more liability on Apple's part, which means money down the tubes as they scramble to appease The Four Gods.
Apple is making tons of money on the prevailing model of people buying iPods and filling them with CD rips (and so forth). If you've watched any keynotes, you've seen him compare their music sales to those of Target and Wal-Mart. The iTMS is just there to sell the music., and they know they can offer a more competitive value without FairPlay. Apple doesn't get anything out of using DRM, and worse, it interferes with their "just works" ideal. DRM is, to borrow a slogan, "broken by design," and that's not the way Apple likes to do things.