“Steven P. Jobs, Apple’s chief executive, jolted the record industry on Tuesday by calling on its largest companies to allow online music sales unfettered by antipiracy software,” John Markoff reports for The New York Times.
Markoff reports, “The Universal Music Group, the Warner Music Group and Sony BMG Music Entertainment declined to comment. But several industry executives said they viewed Mr. Jobs’s comments as an effort to deflect blame from Apple and onto the record companies for the incompatibility of various digital music devices and services.”
MacDailyNews Take: An effort to deflect blame? The blame obviously rests squarely on the shoulders of the major music labels.
Markoff continues, “A senior executive at one company, who requested anonymity to avoid straining relations with Apple, said that while labels might experiment with other forms of copy-protection software, ‘we’re not going to broadly license our content for unprotected digital distribution.'”
MacDailyNews Take: Moron, what about the unprotected digital CDs you sell? Stupidity knows no bounds at the music cartels.
Markoff continues, “Jason Reindorp, marketing director for Zune at Microsoft, said Mr. Jobs’s call for unrestricted music sales was ‘irresponsible, or at the very least naïve,’ adding, ‘It’s like he’s on top of the mountain making pronouncements, while we’re here on the ground working with the industry to make it happen. He’s certainly a master of the obvious,’ Mr. Reindorp said, adding that ‘the stars were already aligning’ to loosen the restrictions.”
MacDailyNews Take: Jobs is “irresponsible or at the very least naïve” for making mountaintop pronouncements, but his call for unrestricted music sales is “obvious” as “the stars were already aligning” to loosen the restrictions?” It’s no surprise that this idiot works for Microsoft on the Zune fiasco. And what is Microsoft working with the industry to make happen besides illogical royalty payments to the music cartels from a non-selling device?
Full article here.
Related articles:
Dvorak: Apple CEO Steve Jobs is dead right about DRM – February 07, 2007
Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ posts rare open letter: ‘Thoughts on Music’ – calls for DRM-free music – February 06, 2007
The first songs they should release DRM-free are the Beatles songs, of course.
Zune makes enough money to support an Exec?
Ok, stupid music industry. Let people keep buying CD’s and then ripping them for the rest of the world to download free of charge. The world has changed. Evolve or disappear.
D’oh: those were exactly my thoughts as I read Steve’s letter yesterday. I have a strong feeling that when the Beatles music comes out on iTunes it’ll be DRM-free.
Talk about a way to poke a stick in the RIAA’s eye
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This is even more proof that Microsoft just doesn’t get it. Microsoft is in this game so that it can be the sole beneficiary – it cares nothing about the customer.
In Jobs’ letter, he mentions consumers once, but customers three times. In Microsoft’s statements, consumers and customers are notably absent; its words focused only on competition and the industry.
Sometimes I just wanna slap peoples faces, what are these Lunes on
To the guys at Zune…Just how much more do you want to motivate Steve Jobs by calling him “naive”??? Companies dream that he would be less motivated or get bored.
Anyone remember the bullseye picture of Michael Dell at the keynote after his statement that Apple should return its money to the shareholders? Folks, we can thank alot to Michael Dell, as since then, Apple has done nothing but kick major butt in every category they have gotten into. DRM-free benefits everyone!
We have a couple of thousand CDs from the major labels at our house. Paid full retail for all of them too, by the way. Anyways … not a one of them has DRM.
There is no one so blind as the deliberately self-deluding.
I think you guys are on to something with the Beatle’s thing.
One thing about what record company and M$ executives say is that they know better, but believe the average person will believe anything. I hope they’re not right, although the M$’ers over at Digg make you think so.
Who the hell was “making in hapen 5 years ago”? APPLE!! Zune is a baby rookie that’s barely been around 6 months….and failing at that. I think someone who has been working on delivery of music for over 5 years, has the advantage and experience to make claims, especially while giving examples and options for all to see. The only option baby Zune has given, is the right to the music companies to grab from their bank account. What they hell does Jason Reindorp A MARKETING DIRECTOR, know about legal/illegal distribution of a billion dollar industry. The fact tha he works for Microsoft says it all.
He should put his money where his mouth is and remove the DRM from the indi labels that did not request it – Purely a marketing plan, Brilliant yes but marketing all the same
“MacDailyNews Take: Moron, what about the unprotected digital CDs you sell? “
The only real answer to this is that over time the music labels will try and put that genie back in the bottle and have DRM protected CDs. They dont want to go the other direction. If they get their way, you’ll pay to listen to a song every time you want to hear it.
Jobs should come out and proclaim the Zune a good first effort just so Microsoft can make a statement declaring that it’s a pile of shit.
Umm, is it going to start raining frogs from the sky? Dvorak agrees with something that Jobs says. Now, MS is saying Jobs is nuts but their biggest fanboi is supporting Apple. THE END IS NEAR!! THE END IS NEAR!!
This response from Zune exec is actually a response from the music companies. Microsoft didn’t come up with the idea for Zune, the music companies did and got Bill and Microsoft to ship it, so as to change their negotiating position with Apple. Steve has trumped them publicly and changed the negotiation to a whole new level!!
We won’t see the Beatles DRM free out of Apple for the same reason all music out of apple is encrypted… player control,
“…we’re here on the ground working with the industry to make it happen.” Riiiiight. And how’s that job coming? Let’s see, where’s the Zune on Amazon’s top 100 electronics products at the moment? Hmm. Nowhere.
Maybe if you were working more on behalf of consumers and less at the behest of the money-grubbing content licensers (i.e. Universal and Sony), Zune would make the list, and your drivel would carry more clout. Right now, it’s not worth the weight of the spit flying from your pie-hole.
(Sorry, must be the coffee. But I’m glad I got that off my chest.)
I think it would be in everyone’s interest, that when Apple does release its first and first few nonDRM tracks, everyone should buy them.
Buying is power, and the industry will see that people will buy nonDRM songs moreso than the restricted ones.
They want DRM everything, with RFID chips at a few cents apiece the technology is now available. How about newspapers with RFID chips in them (how about variable pricing on newspapers depending on how popular the stories are – that’s a dig at RIAA/iTunes). How about cash with RFID chips that determine where it’s been, how YOU can spend it – only with a ‘trusted source’. The phrase ‘trusted source’ is truly Orwellian and promoted primarily by Microsoft who is one of the least trusted sources of all time.
Steve went with DRM to show them a viable business model because the record industry was totally clueless about the concept/technology – remember Eisner’s misunderstanding of ‘rip’. Steve has allowed them plenty of time to see that the business model works and has called them out on it. The problem is their business model is different. Rather than ask people to pay for stuff they want Microsoft’s business model is to extort money for things people (think that they) must have.
Never forget that Microsoft has never even been a software company, it’s always been about lawyering and marketing, usually with some theft/double-dealing involved to get the software products to start with. Check out “Preston Gates Ellis”.
Oh those loony zunies! Don’t they just make you laugh?
Loony Zunes — They’re crackalackin’!!
Steve got the response from Microsoft he hoped for. The more he can get Microsoft to defend DRM in public, the more Microsoft gets the blame. Steve has these bozos trapped now that Vista has shipped. The DRM driven failures of multimedia to work will enrage Vista users and damage Vista migration.
I love it!
“antipiracy software”
Right, “antipiracy”. DRM is about controlling and restricting the use of the average consumer so the major labels can sell you multiple copies of the same thing. If it were up to them, you would not be able to rip CDs.
Reindorp is obviously just trying to roll over and show his belly to the majors – “hey, majors! We will do whatever you want!! We will say whatever you want!! We are your corporate buddies!! Apple is bad!” Douchebaggery.
Interoperability? The majors want us to think they give a single fuck about the consumer? What they care about is the opportunity to charge the consumer more and have more restrictive DRM, neither of which they are going to get with iTS. Thus, they want to be able to get out from under Apple’s thumb. “Oh my god! Apple is DESTROYING the music industry and HURTING the consumer! We want to give you CHOICE!” Please. They want to find an online distributor that is willing to help them bend over the consumer. Great. A choice in 20 crappy players. Oh, wait. $2.99 for “hot” tracks. $1.99 everyday convenient price. Obscure, rarely purchased tracks are $0.79! See! That’s lower than the price on iTS!!!!!!
Get rid of DRM. Sell uncompressed versions. Unless that happens, online distribution will not reach its potential. Thankfully, there are download stores that are already doing this. And guess what? The world has not imploded. Artists are not starving. Consumers are happy. Too bad none of those things mean anything to the major labels.
1. I think it’s hypocritical for a comapny (in this case Apple) and a CEO (in this case Jobs) that rely on predictable enforcement of intellectual property rights (in this case commercial software copyrights) to provide profitability and benefit for shareholders, to ask ANYONE else (in this case musicians and their representatives – the much-maligned record labels) to forego their rights to benefit from their own creativity, work and financial investment. I’ll take Jobs seriously when Aperture or Final Cut Pro is treated the same way that he’s advocating for music.
2. I think that the apparently clueless, naive and intellectually constipated Norwegians et al have no idea what’s involved in bringing a differentiated product to market and earning a living from it. If they don’t like iTunes/iPod, they should invent their own.
just wait…this is just the first salvo from Apple.
Pretty soon, Apple Inc., now that they are free from the Appple Corps lawsuit, will become a label in and of themselves. Artists will be able to negotiate directly with Apple Inc. and have their songs distributed on iTunes DRM free.