“Many people have celebrated Apple’s announcement that it has sold 5 billion songs on iTunes and it’s the world’s largest music retailer. Almost everyone in the world is calling this a major victory for Apple and one that we should all recognize as a milestone that deserves our praise,” Don Reisinger opines for CNET. “But I don’t.”
“To me, Apple’s success with iTunes and its ability to sell 5 billion songs since its launch is an awful event. In fact, it’s probably one of the worst stories I’ve read all year,” Reisinger writes. “As just one of the millions across the globe who’s being treated poorly by the music industry, why should I embrace this news and try so desperately to put a smile on my face?”
Reisinger writes, “Try as it might to do things the right way, iTunes is the result of countless negotiations with the record labels that continue to dislike everything we stand for and do everything they can to ensure that we’re paying too much for a track that’s locked down worse than anything we have ever witnessed in this business. Why hasn’t anyone realized that Apple’s success with iTunes is the very reason we’re being abused by the music industry in the first place?”
MacDailyNews Take: Why hasn’t a CNET technology columnist realized that there are currently over 2 million DRM-free songs available via Apple’s iTunes Store? We do agree that they should ALL be DRM-free, but the misguided music cartels still cling desperately to the notion that by offering Apple’s roadkill some DRM-free songs, they can hurt iTunes Store’s dominance. It ain’t workin’, guys. Give it up, turn off the DRM, and you’ll sell even more music. Don’t confuse Apple with the music labels. Apple CEO Steve Jobs called for DRM-free music well over a year ago. The buffoons running the music labels are to blame for the continued stupidity of DRM’ed music, not Apple.
Reisinger continues, “The way I see it, purchasing songs on iTunes is only perpetuating our fight with the record industry and we’re being forced into a situation where the more we buy, the worse it gets. So unless we stop supporting DRM and the abuse that comes along with it, we’ll be forced to endure it.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader "Marc" for the heads up.]
Towel off and relax, Don. It’s actually just the opposite: the more we buy from Apple, the more power we bestow upon Apple that they can use to force the music cartels to remove the DRM. In fact, Apple has more than enough power right now to force the labels to remove the DRM, if the labels fail to figure out that they should do it on their own (which we believe Jobs would prefer to happen). Patience. It’ll only be just a little while longer.
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