“The music industry is rife with speculation that Microsoft will announce before the end of the year that it is opening an online store to compete with Apple’s iTunes website. It raises the prospect of an all-out battle between Gates, dubbed one of the world’s richest geeks, and Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, described as ‘the first rock star of the technology business,'” David Smith writes for The Observer.
“According to one rumour, Microsoft will join forces with Best Buy, the vast US online electronics retailer, to sell tracks for 89 cents each. A similar arrangement would be expected to follow in Britain. The bad news for iPod owners is that it seems unlikely they could download music from Microsoft’s site,” Smith writes. “Simon Dyson, an analyst at Informa Media, which has just published a report on the market, warned: ‘At the moment, compatibility doesn’t matter because the majority of songs can be ripped from CDs or downloaded illegally. But as soon as digital downloading really takes off it’s potentially problematic. If Microsoft becomes the biggest download site, and it is incompatible with the biggest player, the iPod, that’s potentially ridiculous. It would be a nightmare.'”
Full article here.
If all CDs become copy-protected and all my favourite artists sign WMA-exclusive contracts then I would have two options: 1. Stop buying new music, or 2. embrace online piracy. The music industry would be shooting itself in the foot if it made certain artists available only on certain music stores. There is no good reason why the same libraries could not be available on every format.
I still don’t understand copy protection, even on internet music downloads. I mean, those we want to get things for free will do so. I do believe that selling music online without copy protection will only cause more people to buy music because people will feel that they aren’t screwed by the industry. If the industry treats us consumers fair then consumers will buy music. But the industry just doesn’t get it, just like they didn’t get that you could sell music online before Apple came along. I believe the next step for the industry is to remove all copy protection and then they will see that more people will buy music – which doesn’t mean that swapping will cease to exist, just that purchase will go up.
Call me stupid, but is anyone out there as reticent as I am about spending a huge amount of money on their music collection via iTMS at 128kps compression? Why would anyone do that?
We know drive space is always going to become cheaper and cheaper, therefore compression is not going be an issue in the future, so why would anyone buy files that can’t be reversed to a better quality at a later date? We know this music is looking to escape out of the headphones and into the car, the home, the office etc.
I want to spend a fortune on music, but only at a maximum quality! Is there any word out there that Apple may offer Apple Lossless on iTMS as an option.
Until then it’s still CDs folks.
Semaphore Jones,
I agree with you entirely. I’ve downloaded a few songs from iTMS just to check the quality. They’re not bad, but ‘not bad’ isn’t good enough, when you’re paying full price.
I’ve not heard any news about ‘lossless’ coming to iTMS but, as you suggest, it’ll be an option that’ll become more attractive as the capacity of hard disks increases.
Until then I’ll carry on buying CD’s
Semaphore Jones,
If you want maxiumum quality audio the you should buy the cd!
Under NO CIRCUMSTANCES USE ‘WMA FORMAT’ IF YOU WANT GOOD SOUND QUALITY!!
I think Microsoft should worry about making their current product work properly and function for the “user” rather than try to get into a market which they are so “un-hip” to. Clean up your act first!!!
God! I love my Mac!!!
But it’s funny how I have never heard anyone say
….ever….
“God, I love my Windows”.
By the way..an iPod is REALLY an external firewire storage device first…and as a Mac user with an iPod..I can install a System X folder on my iPod and boot up with it and run diaganostics. Which, funny thing, in the past 2 years with Mac OS X I have only had to do that ONCE with someone else’s computer that was acting a little funny. Fixed it!!
Can’t do that on a PC!
I’m bewitched that the 128kps topic hasn’t been discussed at any great length. I sense that the early iTMS adopters (who are generally the most passionate music lovers) aren’t painting their music collection into an inferior quality corner. Surely people need to think beyond their iPod.
We all want our music for life, so where’s the benefit here?
That goes for all AAC, WMA or ATRAC formats.
…of course this may all change under a subscription model, where pressumably you can just update you library (all be it laborious) to the highest quality available at a later date.
‘If Microsoft becomes the biggest download site, and it is incompatible with the biggest player, the iPod, that’s potentially ridiculous. It would be a nightmare.’
How can this be possible? To be the biggest you’ll need to offer a complete solution, yet M$ has to come up with a complete solution before they can forecast a large market share, otherwise, I think that this is a superficial statement. – M$ must have a better music store than iTunes and should have a better mp3 player than iPod; so far, this hasn’t happened yet.
The quality on iTunes is fine for most users. Not everyone has a need to hear everything with such high standards.
Re: racist left wing
I’m sure there are many left-wingers who truly want to help the more unfortunate. It seems obvious, however, that those in control of left-wing political parties have a vested interest in keeping poor people (of all races and ethnic backgrounds) poor. Once someone no longer needs the left-wing politicians to take money away from those who are working, they have less incentive to vote for those who will now take money from them.
Socialism, like any form of government, will work if people were perfect. Capitalism assumes the truth, that people will act in their own self-interest, and tries to gain as much benefit for society based on that truth. All other forms of government that ignore that basic human motivation end up corrupted by those who are given the power to take away the earnings and rights of individuals.
Socialism can never work because there is no mechanism in socialism to know the true price of anything.