“‘If we go lower than that, CD sales will suffer. If we go higher than that we wouldn’t beat CD rental shops,’ said an official of a major record company. Another issue that needs addressing is the introduction of measures to prevent illegal copying of digital music, most of which impose limitations on how the music is shared, annoying consumers,” The Asahi Shimbun reports. “Unlike Apple’s iTunes service, whose downloads can be burned onto CD-Rs, most downloads from the Japanese sites are copy-protected and cannot be copied onto CD-Rs. In addition, the different Japanese services offer different file formats, each requiring specific devices to play them.”
The Asahi Shimbun reports, “A Japanese version of Apple’s iTunes has been unable to get started due to opposition from the local recording industry, which deems its copy protection measures to be inadequate and has refused to offer its music catalog. Yoshiaki Sakito, Apple’s vice president in charge of marketing, says the popularity of the company’s iPod digital audio player will eventually help pry the market open. ‘The record companies won’t be able to swim against the tide forever,’ he said.”
Full article here.