Thu 8 Feb 2007
Jon Lech Johansen has an interesting take on the iTunes music store
It should not take Apple’s iTunes team more than 2-3 days to implement a solution for not wrapping content with FairPlay when the content owner does not mandate DRM. This could be done in a completely transparent way and would not be confusing to the users.
In a market where both DRM and DRM-free music is available via easy legal purchase from the same location and assuming there are enough content providers who would release without DRM as to reach critical mass, which side would generate more money over the long haul? It is an interesting question. Would we see market forces pulling people to more indie labels willing to release non DRM material which would cause pop labels to follow after losing sales? Or would trafficking in unauthorized copies of non DRM music cause more artists to flock to DRM?
I say let the content creators decide which way they wish to license their content and let the market sort it out.
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February 8th, 2007 at 11:54 am
My coworkers and I were discussing this over lunch yesterday, and we came to the conclusion that this will never happen, at least not from Apple.
Why? Consistency. Apple seems to constantly push for a *consistent* user experience, and providing both DRM and DRM-free songs from the same place will be very *in*consistent.
In particular, the user can attach any iTMS song to an email and send it to a friend. However, a DRM song won’t play for the friend, while a DRM-free song will. Then there’s the 5 device limitation: DRM songs have it, while DRM-free songs won’t.
This leads to inconsistency and confusion for the user: why can some files be sent usably to friends, while others can’t? Why do some files have device limitations, while others don’t? Sure, we can explain “DRM” to them, but that doesn’t make them feel any better, especially since there’s nothing they can actually *do* about it (they don’t care about the publisher, they care about the song, JUST MAKE THE DAMN SONG PLAY!).
Consequently, we’ll have better luck lobbying Europe to lobby the RIAA to make their portfolios available DRM-free. Then *all* iTMS songs can be DRM-free, thus resulting in a consistent user experience.
It’s either all DRM, or all DRM-free. Anything else will lead to confusion for at least some group of users, as far as Apple is concerned.
(Note: I don’t work for Apple, have no friends in Apple, and in fact work on the other side of the country, so this is all just rampant speculation, but it Makes Sense.)
- Jon
February 8th, 2007 at 12:43 pm
Jon,
Of course that argument falls flat when considering Apple already allows mp3’s and DRM-free aac’s to play on the device. Also since Steve is all for DRM-free music this is how he can put his money where his mouth is.
You do highlight the reasons why DRM-Free would have a leg up in a free market however.
February 8th, 2007 at 4:46 pm
I don’t think the argument quite falls flat. It’s a question of iPod consistency vs. iTMS consistency. Yes, you can place DRM-free songs on the iPod, but you cannot buy DRM-free songs from iTMS, so they’re each consistent with each other, but perhaps not fully consistent as a whole.