“RealNetworks CEO Rob Glaser has a message for Apple Computer chief Steve Jobs: Open iPod or shrivel,” Michael Kanellos reports for CNET News.com. “Glaser, the feisty founder of the Internet entertainment network, said during a panel discussion Tuesday at PC Forum here that Apple is creating problems for itself by using a file format that forces consumers to buy music from Apple’s own iTunes site.”
“Because Apple’s iPod music player does not support other proprietary music formats and does not license its own format to rivals, Real’s Rhapsody and other song sites are blocked from easily reaching iPod users,” Kanellos reports. “‘Apple’s (market) share will go down if they continue to do this. The only way to presently put songs on an iPod is to (buy) them from iTunes,’ Glaser said, referring to downloads purchased from online music stores. In addition to iTunes songs, the iPod can play files encoded in the MP3 format, including tracks ripped from CDs.”
“Hewlett-Packard, which has partnered with Apple on digital music, is in a position to persuade the company to change its practice, he said,” Kanellos reports. “‘There is a good opportunity to say to Steve, ‘You’ve done a good job of promoting this thing, but now one of two bad things will happen,” Glaser said. ‘One, Apple’s market share will go down to its historical single-digit levels, or two, it will slow down the development of this market.'”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Glaser wants iPod to work with Real Rhapsody’s music format: AAC with the Helix DRM. Currently, iPod plays AAC with Fairplay DRM from the iTunes Music Store, MP3, MP3 VBR, Audible, AIFF and WAV. The real question is why would an iPod owner want to use Real’s Rhapsody when they already have the best software with iTunes for Mac or Windows? (If you are really dying to use Rhapsody, you have to burn a CD and import that into iTunes for use in your iPod). So, what’s in it for Apple or Apple iPod users? While in the short term, it might be nice to team up with Real against Microsoft’s WMA used by Napster, Wal-Mart, BuyMusic and others, is Real really a force for the long term? Sounds like Rhapsody is in trouble. Napster, the number two legit online music service is less than 1/10th the size of Apple’s iTunes Music Store. Too many iPod owners means not enough Rhapsody customers. Real and the WMA pack are selling only leaded gasoline, but most people are driving a device that requires Apple-formulated and Apple-owned super unleaded. Only Apple sells this special super unleaded. No wonder Glaser’s begging. Unless Apple falters in a big way, and there’s no sign of even a wobble so far, Apple should stay the course – at this rate the others will suffocate before too long. And HP is about to begin selling iPods, too, with iTunes preloaded on HP PCs – that’s gotta hurt.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Napster CEO: ‘it would be great’ if Apple iPod supported WMA – March 09, 2004
Napster Exec: warns ‘stay-off the Apple platform’ to MIDEM international music market delegates – January 26, 2004
In a perfect world everything would work together no problem with the technology best suited for the job. Apple of course. Bill Gates has same vision but only in his dreams does it all work perfectly.
Maybe one day Apple will open up iPod but not yet.
Glaser says “Apple’s (market) share will go down if they continue to do this.” If this were really true then you would think that he would WANT Apple to continue to lock out other contenders, thereby losing market share. No, Glaser says what he says because he’s losing and he’s desperate. Go Steve! Go Apple!
“Open iPod or shrivel” sounds like a threat, one that Apple can dismiss as empty rhetoric. Real is not selling any content that the iTunes Music Store does not allready sell so there is no incentive for users to buy music from them. Statements like “The only way to presently put songs on an iPod is to (buy) them from iTunes” are nothing more than lies; iPods can play MP3, WAV, AIFF, AAC and M4P files ripped from CDs and encoded by any application. Perhaps Apple should set the record straight on exactly what files can be used with iPods since the competition has resorted to these dis-information campaigns.
So, all of these other music services want Apple to open up iPod, yet none of their services have opened up to Mac users. How ironic.
Alec nails it.
Real needs to just co-brand iTunes like HP did. No one else can make money selling tracks, only Apple has the profitable plan: iPod sales. So Real should be smart and just co-brand iTunes music store. This way Apple bears the cost and Real can keep their customers using the Real player. Any other way is just real digging a money pit for themselves. They need to think out of the box. Music Stores are about selling the player. Since Real doesn’t sell hardware, let them co-brand the music store and make it an option on their player.
Even if iPod/iTunes worked with other systems, I still would not use. Apple has best solution. That is the bottom line. That is why they get my $$$. The company who gives me what I want…ease of use, cool factor, functional hardware/software, reasonalbe pricing (cheaper is not always better)…is the owner of my hard earned dollar. Those who can’t compete on technology, compete on price. The REALNETWORKS CEO should strive to raise the bar, not lower it so he can compete.
When real stop making inferior versions of realplayer for mac, and stop having all that rubbish telling you to register, when you dont want to. And stop telling you to upgrade.
Then I’ll understand him.
LOL, Glaser: “we are dying Apple, we beg you to open up iPod, so some will buy from us too”
Pathetic.
As far as Apple losing market share… how since the iPod is gaining market share constantly?
A LITTLE CHEESE TO GO WITH THAT WHINE SIR?
How about Rhapsody offering their music in ACC format with Fairplay DRM?
ACC format is now becoming the accepted standard because of it’s higher quality and neutrality. The DVD community has embraced it.
The Fairplay DRM is made by a third company and I’m sure that company would be happy to license it.
Since these johnny come lately music services don’t have a decent iPod to sell, and are not making any money selling music, they will have to be forced to adopt different formats in order to remain in buisness.
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The pressure’s starting to bite guys. Check out the stats. Buymusic, Napster and Musicmatch are dropping significantly in their traffic. Napster’s at it’s lowest since release and a long way behind even Musicmatch who are also falling. Buymusic might as well put Tommy Lee back in the rock coffin where he belongs, they’re finished.
http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?&range=1y&size=large&compare_sites=apple.com, musicmatch.com, napster.com&url=buymusic.com#graph
Man that FUD is so good I want to masturbate to it. Well the streets work both ways.
But you have to keep the perspective of what is really being said. “Can I be your whipping boy Stevie?”
Seriously though hasn’t anyone thought of 2 things:
1. Develop your own DRM and wrap that around AAC, which is the better format, love the super unleaded.
2. Approached Apple to get Fairplay from them. Sure someone could bring a MS license to them and say, I’ll rip this up and take yours. Its about time for it.
One way or the other, this rocks.
Gee Rob, who knew you were such a caring, giving sort of guy.
It’s so kind of you to want to save the PC customer from the effort of installing iTunes on their system, and also to save them the effort of installing that annoying QuickTime software as well.
You know, if I was a cynic, I’d almost suspect you had another agenda. Thank God you’re not a con-artist like that nasty Steve Jobs character.
Hmmmmm�
Sailfish I have looked all over and can’t find anyplace you can license Fairplay. The closest I get is the Veridisc site and that is so out of date they have lost their DNS to a porno site.
http://64.244.235.240/info_about.asp
http://64.244.235.240/explained_get.asp
Apple isn’t being open about this (and why should they?) but I think that they control Fairplay and are leveraging it to harvest the first mover profits. This is great but at some point they should open up Fairplay to other players and lock in AAC/Fairplay as the de facto standard. That way whenever ANY player gets sold, Apple would get paid. Unfortunately AAC itself is more expensive to license than WMA:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/licensing/licensing.aspx#link2
And that is why all the other players are going with it. It is available and it is cheaper. Tag on Fairplay licensing costs and it is really gonna be hard for other players to compete but what choice will they have?
This is all decidedly M$ish as a strategy but it is about time someone beat them at their own game but with a better product rather than a mediocre one. It is my sincere hope that Apple dominating in this area will help them break the M$ monopoly and re-introduce fair competition to the market place. The winners if this happens will be the consumers.
Sour grapes from the little fox. I think Glaser’s “concern” for Apple is nothing more than a transparent attempt to save his own job. Hey, Glaser, why don’t you join the winning team and quit the whining team.
I actually agree with the RealNetworks guy. Technical issues aside for the moment, Apple says they maintain iTMS to sell iPods. If that’s the case, then why not allow other music stores to further drive iPod sales? Wouldn’t Apple be in a perfect position in terms of hardware sales if, ultimately, they didn’t maintain a music store at all, but just sold boatloads of iPods?
Any company should be able to license and create an iTunes music store. Apple does not make money on their song sales. MS is getting every two bit music store wanna be out there. Apple really does need to get the song sales open to more companies. Being a closed system did not work for them the first time around and will not work for them the second. Yes, I have purchased 2 iPods and a ton of music from iTunes music store. No, I probably would not use the other services much, but Apple really does need them in the long run.
I would love to see someone start an online music store specializing in indie music that utilizes AAC/Fairplay. Apple is a little to slow in getting the indie stuff online and can only help Apple bottom line in the long run.
treadlightly, last I checked you don’t have to be a “Mac User” to own and use an Ipod.
Remember back in the good ole days when Apple had a chance to take their product to a new level but some other company came in and created a similar product and made it so it would work on a lot of different products that now hold about 95% of todays market share. Well Apple has a history of wanting to be a niche player and they are exhibiting the same thing here with the Ipod and other file formats. How can Apple think a new Ipod is better off sitting on a shelf in shrinkwrap because it is not compatible with Walmart, Napster, Musicmatch, etc? In the end, it’s all about personal choice. If someone wants to buy an Ipod but use Walmart for their music downloads, why shouldn’t they be able to do this.
I remember Steve Jobs promoting “open source”. How about you start with the Ipod and stick to your word.
Persnickity – If you spell iPod, Ipod then you are just a Microsoft troll.
Apple’s iTunes Music Store controls 80% of the legit online music download market.
An iPod is not going to sit on a shelf because some soon-to-go-belly-up WMA music outfits can’t serve up AAC/Fairplay format files.
Users need simply to download iTunes for Mac or Windows to use their iPods if they want to do the legit online music thing.
Real, Napster, MusicMatch, etc. are walking dead.
Steve Jobs is laughing.
Persnickity….
I think what treadlightly and Alec were referring to is that when you connect to one of these services FROM A Mac….you are generally given a nastygram from the company saying Mac’s are in no way supported.
Afree with Facts….learn how to spell iPod before making such a ridiculous statemend
>> Unfortunately AAC itself is more expensive to license than WMA <<
Mmmm … not to sure about Microsoft’s figures there. They seem to have lumped MPEG4 and AAC together. AAC is open source, so I don’t think it would cost anything. In fact, quite a few players already support AAC, but not FairPlay.
I’m not sure I understand where the competition is going to be. There are a whole whack of companies trying to get in first on the download business. It’s an accepted fact that you can’t make money at downloads at low quantities – you need to achieve critical mass in the order of tens of millions per month. So how will these guys make any money? Advertizing? Web portal?
Add to this that there is no margin in song downloads. You can’t compete on price. I don’t know what Walmart thinks it’s doing at 88 cents when 99 doesn’t pay the bills. So you compete on content? Everyone has the same songs. If I want to buy something by “U2” I can go to any store. On-line stores don’t follow the brick and mortar model. Location does not matter and inventory level is barely an issue (you might have to get a bigger hard drive on your server). So it then becomes about packaging – promoting artists, offering cover art, free preview tracks etc.
So that leaves us with the player. If the content is irrelevant, then the competition takes place on the player side. If you like the looks, price, features of one player over the other, you buy it. In the case of the iPod, you get the music store as part of it. If you buy another one, you have to choose your (irrelevant) content provider.
Of course, the assumption that is inherent in the WMA debate, is that you are using your computer as the center of the music listening process. Apple one ups that by not even requiring a computer to manage the music (albeit a very limited option). Should be interesting to watch the competition.