“UK high street music retailer HMV has begun to sell Apple’s iPod portable music player via its website,” Tony Smith reports for The Register. “No great surprise there, given the device’s popularity, nor that it is being sold through the music downloads section of HMV’s site. What is odd, however, is that the iPod will not play songs downloaded through HMV.”
“HMV’s current download partner is On-Demand Distribution (OD2). The music retailer resells OD2’s 50-songs-a-month subscription package for a monthly
This goes to show the redundancy of Microsoft’s WMA in the real world. iPods sell, iRivers, Dell DJ etc do not. OD2 would be doing a service to their partners and customers by abandoning the rubbish WMA format and embracing open standards like AAC or MP3.
If Apple will not license their proprietary Fairplay DRM, nobody will be able to sell legal downloads that work on iPod, but Apple. If everybody has iPods, Apple’s iTunes wins and all others are fscked. Somebody need to ask Microsoft how they feel about being out-Microsofted.
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FAO Sputnik,
This is the real world, where Apple DOMINATES the online music industry. The UK’s No. 1 high street music store is now selling iPods through it’s online store, and as soon as people realise they can’t play WMA through their beautiful new iPods they’ll ditch it quicker than you can say Portable Media Center.
By the way Sputnick, how many times were you dropped on your head as a baby?
A few carefully selected partners like HMV could help Apple.
What about giving HMV an HMV-branded version of iTunes?
Are these the guys who are planning to sue Apple to open the iPod to their music format?
Er.. Tommy Boy.. wake up.. how big do you think HMV is!? An HMV branded iPod?!?! what? PURPLE!? Bleh..
Seriously.. the point is for Apple to let these stores build iTunes Music Store into their Websites.. which would..obviously.. drop into the ITunes files
How would they make money?
Apple could pay a percentage of revs from each store back to the host.. why not? That’s how ‘advertising’ works (unless you think a flat rate, like the real world is more to Apple’s advantage)