RealNetworks, Inc. is delighted by initial consumer and music industry support for Harmony. Compatibility, choice and quality are critically important to consumers and Harmony provides all of these to users of the iPod and over 70 other music devices including those from Creative, Rio, iRiver, and others. RealPlayer Music Store provides the highest sound quality of any download music service. That’s why so many consumers have welcomed news of Harmony. Consumers, and not Apple, should be the ones choosing what music goes on their iPod.
Harmony follows in a well-established tradition of fully legal, independently developed paths to achieve compatibility. There is ample and clear precedent for this activity, for instance the first IBM compatible PCs from Compaq. Harmony creates a way to lock content from Real’s music store in a way that is compatible with the iPod, Windows Media DRM devices, and Helix DRM devices. Harmony technology does not remove or disable any digital rights management system. Apple has suggested that new laws such as the DMCA are relevant to this dispute. In fact, the DMCA is not designed to prevent the creation of new methods of locking content and explicitly allows the creation of interoperable software.
We remain fully committed to Harmony and to giving millions of consumers who own portable music devices, including the Apple iPod, choice and compatibility.
MacDailyNews Take: The war is on! Wonder which company will win? We also wonder if and when Apple will update iPod software causing Real’s Harmony technology to stop working with current and future iPods. Don’t buy a song from Real for your iPod unless you are prepared for it to become unplayable on your iPod sometime in the future.
Again, to those who would scream about “choice,” you have the choice to buy a Dell Digital Junkbox and use the Real Music Store as much as you wish. Enjoy your experience. We prefer to choose Apple’s iPod working with Apple’s iTunes Music Store and have found no other legal music service/player combo that even remotely compares to Apple’s solution.
The danger to Apple is that Real license their DRM to others (hardware makers and download sites). Real’s approach has some marketing benefit, “no need to license Fairplay and WMA, just license Helix”.
Apple has to defend it’s position, like in copyright disputes failing to protect your copyright weakens your case. If Apple doesn’t fight it Real will feel able to mess more with Apple’s business, maybe crazy stuff like convert AAC to MP3.
Glaser worked at, learned the tricks of the trade at: Microsoft.
As said elsewhere it may become like the IM wars a few years ago, Microsoft ‘hacked’ compatability with AOL which AOL quickly broke, repeat….., repeat.
Interestingly enough, there is a iPod SW Update crying for attention right now. 😀
Goodbye, Harmony! We hardly knew ya!
DaninPgh:
“Those of you lucky enough to own a 40GB iPod should probably be ripping your CDs to Apple Lossless anyway.”
Yeah, if I want about 15 minutes of battery life…
This is the ultimate irony – Real, a company built upon locking away content so that it plays back all low-res and low fi is hacking open another company’s product.
It takes them 8 years and 10 players later to deliver one that works? But it takes them less than a year to hack another company’s products? WTF?
Where’s the Real software for conversion from RAM or RM to MP3?
How about releasing that first?
I think we should let REAL know exactly what we think of them and their actions:
http://www.realnetworks.com/company/contact/index.html
Honestly, Apple doesn’t play well with many legitimate developers, so illegitimate ones like Real don’t stand a chance.
Just been wondering here with all this bruhaha – exactly what music can I get from Real/Rhapsody that I can’t already get from iTMS? And if I have to jump through all these extra hoops and then install this update or that patch to avoid the back and forth to begin with to have “choice” as the good folks at Real say it creates, then why bother?
I think the reason why Steve didn’t want to work together with Real in the first place was because Steve doesn’t like Glasner. Now we know why. Glasner doesn’t want to work together with Apple – although he likes to pretend that he does – what Glasner really wants is undermine Apple. In the end, this war isn’t about compatibility, but about power play. If Apple licenses its DRM to Real, Apple looses a bit of its saying power to a competitor. Apple will loose full control of the product and Real can demand things for its customers. We also have to remember that Real isn’t just a competitor regarding music downloads, but also regarding Internet video. QuickTime is flying past Real right now, and Glasner is really not liking it. Apple is winning the formats war. Glasner sees that the future battle is becoming one between Apple and Microsoft and he has to do anything to undermine Apple. Apple has to do anything right now to push Real off the map. This way, with Real gone, Apple can focus itself to MS. For Apple, Real has to go and any collaboration with Real is unthinkable. I do think, however, that Apple has no problem with working together with other companies.
I’m really suprised by these developments.
In Robbie’s letter to Steve he said that if Apple didn’t open up Real would have no choice but to align with Microsoft.
I guess Robbie figured out that crap + crap = crap, and so has hacked into Apple’s software.
I think I’m going to short lots and lots of Real stock.
If Apple allow Real’s solution to seed then they will have to support it. For this reason they cannot allow it to seed.
A quote I read on MacCentral:
“All licenses come with any number of transfers to music players. Given that and also that iTunes/iPod does not allow the users to copy songs from iPod to computer, all REAL had to do was simply remove the DRM when copying the songs to iPod. But, they won’t do it. Why? Because, they know the consumers will hack this solution to get non-DRMed version, while they want the control to themselves.
Will REAL allow me to have the song that I purchased from REAL in m4p format with Fairplay DRM so that I can use iTunes to sync the songs to my iPod?
NO.
The song will be stored in the computer in REAL’s proprietary format and will be converted to other proprietary formats without licensing them. So, they want to control.. “consumer options..” is marketing BS.”
“Well, if I buy music, I want it to “just work” no matter where i play it, or whose store i get it from.”
Well that just isn’t the way it is..There is a format war going on right now, go buy some tracks from Sony, Napster, Etc…They are not going to just work.
The way I see it the only way that is ever going to happen is for one format/drm to win convincinly..
Right now it is Apples battle to lose, they have a huge lead. All this Real move does is further muddy the waters it doesn’t take you ANY closer to the digital music utopia you seek.
Here’s another quote from the Mac Observer which supports the other quote I posted:
“For example, I just read that the Real beta software puts up a dialog box that tells you that you need to make Real’s software the only app that manages the music on your iPod. It also forces you to quit iTunes if it is running at the same time.
So choosing to use Real’s music on your iPod is also choosing not to use iTunes. That sounds pretty dumb to me.”
Don’t underestimate how masochistic PC users can be. Real now offers them a means of doing something they could’ve done with iTMS in fewer steps and with less aggravation. The only benefit would be a increase in bitrate from 128 to 192, but also at a cost of disk space and battery life. I, for one, would not do this. PC users just seem to enjoy doing things the hard way.
Don’t underestimate how masochistic PC users can be. Real now offers them a means of doing something they could’ve done with iTMS in fewer steps and with less aggravation. The only benefit would be a increase in bitrate from 128 to 192, but also at a cost of disk space and battery life. I, for one, would not do this. PC users just seem to enjoy doing things the hard way.
First off, Harmony does not “hack” the iPod. All it does is convert the DRM from Helix–which is used by Real’s music store–to FairPlay, which is used by iTMS. Since the music is AAC, there is no need to convert the music format. It then downloads that song to the iPod.
“What advantage does another store offer to an iPod owner? Selection and price is the same. Higher bit rate AAC?”
Yes, higher bit-rate AAC.
I noticed Cowboy Junkies have an exclusive live version of Close My Eyes where iTunes doesn’t. I didn’t look too exhaustively, though–check out their list of “exclusives”.
All of the music stores have “exclusives”, some which last weeks, some which are permanent. For example, when the labels convinced Tom Petty to allow his older stuff to be sold on-line, Napster had it two weeks before everyone else. I think Apple had a similar deal with Fleetwood Mac. So if you want the track right now and don’t want to wait who knows how long until whoever’s exclusive deal ends, having multiple sources to buy your music is nice.
“Real […] is hacking open another company’s product.”
Okay, let’s start with the obvious.
How did Apple get TextEdit/AppleWorks to open Word documents? How did Apple get Keynote to open PowerPoint documents? Do you think they licensed it from Microsoft? They either did it themselves or found someone else to do it.
Should Microsoft go DMCA on Apple’s ass because they came up with a way to convert PowerPoint? Should Microsoft go out of their way to break that link ASAP? If they did, we’d all be whining about what an evil company Microsoft is. Double standard much?
What will be interesting to see is if Real can make FairPlay work in a rental model. If so, that could create some heat for Apple from people who want to rent music to fill up their iPods. (10,000 songs on iTunes is $9900. Divide $9900 by $9.95 per month and you end up with about 83 years…)
Well said Peter.
Real/Harmony did not hack the iPod. They hacked their own AAC files to make them work on my iPod.
I love my mac and iPod. But I really don’t see how this is a bad thing. I don’t plan on buying music from Real/Harmony, especially if it is available on iTunes, but it is good to know that I can, and it will play on my iPod.
What I find interesting is there are some people on this board that seem to be hoping that Apple will release a firmware update that will break Harmony. Why would anyone want Apple to remove functionality from their iPod?
When Microsoft releases Service Packs that break a competitor’s software it pisses me off. I would hope that Apple doesn’t follow Microsoft’s lead.
Let Harmony and iTune compete in the market place, not by breaking or preventing each others software/music from working. (BTW, My money is on iTunes).
Peter:
“How did Apple get TextEdit/AppleWorks to open Word documents? How did Apple get Keynote to open PowerPoint documents? Do you think they licensed it from Microsoft? They either did it themselves or found someone else to do it.
Should Microsoft go DMCA on Apple’s ass because they came up with a way to convert PowerPoint? Should Microsoft go out of their way to break that link ASAP? If they did, we’d all be whining about what an evil company Microsoft is. Double standard much?”
While it may be a double standard the Word and Powerpoint file formats aren’t encrypted and Apple Computer isn’t a convicted monopoly.
No actually, Microsoft helped em do it. Good for the anti-trust defense…
Apple will go for a lawsuit as soon as it has a case of violation of US Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
It looks bad business practice as what Glaser is telling is that if you refuse a business deal (if he asked Apple for a deal initially is because he *knows* he has to). Now that the deal has been refused he is trying to force Apple into either a lengthy litigation or a compromise to get a deal.
I think he miscalculated as the business world sees that as malpractice.
If Glaser had never asked Apple for a deal then he would have the case. As it is now he looks simply like a cracker trying to force Real into iTMS/iPod business.
Consumer pro-choice my ass: you simply do not do this in business. Partnership-like Glaser did a truly bad service to his company.
Why are people comparing a file format with a digital rights management scheme? Converting from one file format (i.e. Word document) to another is not the same thing as circumventing a licensed copy protection scheme. Real is violating a license agreement, if not Apple’s with the labels, then its own. This is one step away from a free-for-all that’s going to make all of us consumers suffer. Real should pay and pay royally. I would settle for nothing less than total liquidation.
IT MAKES SENSE NOW! THE $100 DOLLAR DELl DJ trade in IPODS (all 3) were sent over to Real so they could beta test their software!
The Real DELL alliance! Stronger than flour and water- paper mache all the way
paul
apples and oranges:
“Why are people comparing a file format with a digital rights management scheme? Converting from one file format (i.e. Word document) to another is not the same thing as circumventing a licensed copy protection scheme.”
I am playing devil’s advocate here, but just how did Real/Harmony circumvent a licensed copy protection scheme? They did not break Fairplay or mess around with songs purchased from iTunes. They simply figured out how to make their songs ( AAC files from Harmony ) play on the iPod.
Fairplay is designed to keep the ipod owner from making unlicensed/unlimited copies of music downloaded from iTunes and make the RIAA happy. Was Fairplay designed to block other music formats?
I think the Mac Users will understand and not scream if Steve finesses Real with the next iPod update. I wonder about the windows users though. I can’t really see why any of them would want to use anything other than iTunes and they are all in love with their iPods so probably it will be no biggy.
space
“They simply figured out how to make their songs ( AAC files from Harmony ) play on the iPod.”
They must have done some poking around somewhere. Harmony converts Helix into Fairplay (or fairplay compatible). Also, if I remember correctly, the iPod does something funky when you when load songs onto it (to appease the RIAA-ugh). Real would had to poke around with that as well.
It’s gonna be interesting to see where this leads in the future.