Steve Jobs is no friend to the music industry. He is just an astute businessman who knows a vacuum when it enters his reality distortion field. When he penned his open letter decrying DRM protection, few knew that this was part of an orchestrated move that might force the music industry to do something that is ultimately in its own best interest — sort of. When the man is right, he is dead on. CD’s are the primary source of pirated music. Rip one unprotected song from a CD and there you have it. It can be shared with friends or the entire planet, with nothing for the publisher or the artist. Compression and broadband conspired to make the iPod king of mobile music. Movies are somewhat different. DVDs have some protection built in and the file size is much bigger. Unlike an album full of music, you really want all of the scenes from beginning to end, unless it is just a great car chase scene in an otherwise dull movie. And that tiny screen.
We may be entering an era where the bulk of the value offered by music is provided by the artist and the cost of production and distribution is of little value. Look at the travel business. The Internet has stripped out much of the value added by agents. No longer do you have to sit in an upholstered chair while watching the travel agent peck at the keys and read the options off a CRT. The Internet is transforming the world of sales agents and distributors – real estate, cars, music.
If this move works, it is a huge win for Apple and for the consumer. No DRM limitations. Higher music quality. Near total interoperability. All for twenty nine cents more. What of the iPod? Losing the integrated vertical monopoly with iTunes and Fair Play could kill it you say. Ridiculous. The vast majority of music on iPods is ripped from CDs. Legitimate fair use as well as pirated. Death blow to Zune or boon? Death blow — what a lousy product. What of WMA and RMA? Footnotes. AAC is open source and better than MP3 without the onerous lawsuit that hangs over MP3. Long live iTunes and Quicktime. These technologies are at the core of future Apple success.
Already, the spotlight is turning from the perceived Apple monopoly in the distribution of digital music towards the record companies and their role in the variable pricing of songs for iTunes in Europe. Perhaps Apple could take over the music business by leasing iMacs preloaded with Garage Band to every potential new artist and just post the tracks on iTunes for a fee. Price songs by popularity. Ten cents each until they get popular. Then charge Fifty. Who needs a music industry when you can just put a do it yourself version of American Idol directly onto the iTunes Music Store.
Steve Jobs is no friend to the music industry. He is just an astute businessman who knows a vacuum when it enters his reality distortion field. When he penned his open letter decrying DRM protection, few knew that this was part of an orchestrated move that might force the music industry to do something that is ultimately in its own best interest — sort of. When the man is right, he is dead on. CD’s are the primary source of pirated music. Rip one unprotected song from a CD and there you have it. It can be shared with friends or the entire planet, with nothing for the publisher or the artist. Compression and broadband conspired to make the iPod king of mobile music. Movies are somewhat different. DVDs have some protection built in and the file size is much bigger. Unlike an album full of music, you really want all of the scenes from beginning to end, unless it is just a great car chase scene in an otherwise dull movie. And that tiny screen.
We may be entering an era where the bulk of the value offered by music is provided by the artist and the cost of production and distribution is of little value. Look at the travel business. The Internet has stripped out much of the value added by agents. No longer do you have to sit in an upholstered chair while watching the travel agent peck at the keys and read the options off a CRT. The Internet is transforming the world of sales agents and distributors – real estate, cars, music.
If this move works, it is a huge win for Apple and for the consumer. No DRM limitations. Higher music quality. Near total interoperability. All for twenty nine cents more. What of the iPod? Losing the integrated vertical monopoly with iTunes and Fair Play could kill it you say. Ridiculous. The vast majority of music on iPods is ripped from CDs. Legitimate fair use as well as pirated. Death blow to Zune or boon? Death blow — what a lousy product. What of WMA and RMA? Footnotes. AAC is open source and better than MP3 without the onerous lawsuit that hangs over MP3. Long live iTunes and Quicktime. These technologies are at the core of future Apple success.
Already, the spotlight is turning from the perceived Apple monopoly in the distribution of digital music towards the record companies and their role in the variable pricing of songs for iTunes in Europe. Perhaps Apple could take over the music business by leasing iMacs preloaded with Garage Band to every potential new artist and just post the tracks on iTunes for a fee. Price songs by popularity. Ten cents each until they get popular. Then charge Fifty. Who needs a music industry when you can just put a do it yourself version of American Idol directly onto the iTunes Music Store.