“While Apple has its committed loyalists on the hardware side, it seems to have painted itself into a corner on the content side — and that means music,” Francine Brevetti writes for Inside Bay Area. “The question is, will music lovers get over its limitations in the long-term?”
“The Apple music store iTunes is available to anyone, even those with a PC. Those with an iPod device can use only the music in the format deliverd by iTunes,” Brevetti writes. “Admittedly, iTunes is a big house with hundreds of thousands of entries and it has sold hundreds of millions of songs online at 99 cents a pop. However, those who buy music from PC-based music stores can use more than iTunes; they can buy from a variety of different platforms and retailers supported by Windows media. For instance liquid.com, Napster, Wal-Mart, MusicMatch and so many others, many of which are selling their songs for less than 99 cents.”
MacDailyNews Note: Select songs are sold by others for less than 99-cents per track, that is. Many others sell other songs for more than 99-cents. Apple’s iTunes Music Store offers over a million songs, for clarity’s sake.
“‘The iPod Shuffle will give iTunes access to more customers and competition. Selling more players will open more people to iTunes, but it will also make people aware that they are limited to iTunes,’ said Lisa Malley, senior brand manager for portable media devices with Creative Labs,” Brevetti writes. “‘If the dominant platform is Windows, then Windows media will proliferate faster,’ said Mark Farish, Samsung’s director of marketing of digital audio systems. ‘The reason Macintosh failed in the PC market was because it didn’t license its technologies to other manufacturers, which Microsoft did. Now iTunes is doing the same. Microsoft powers maybe 10 different music content providers and multiple portable audio providers compatible with them. Consumers need choice. Apple dominates now, but in the bigger picture it won’t stay that way for long.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple’s iTunes works on both Mac and Windows and the iTunes Music Store (iTMS) offers over a million tracks for 99-cents per track. We fail to see what’s so limiting about those facts. The key is the iPod. Most people have iPods, so they can use iTunes and buy from iTMS on either Windows or Mac. Those complaining are the makers of portable players that they don’t sell like the iPod and online music stores that can’t sell to iPod owners. Well, too bad. Make a better mousetrap and see if you can sell it to the masses. Until then, we guess complaining and whining and plain old FUD will continue to be the order of the day from the also-rans.
The Macintosh platform required and still requires huge investments by developers to create compatible software. So, when faced with budgetary contraints, they chose and still sometimes choose to go with the most popular platforms. The iPod simply plays music that can be encoded, for very little cost, in any format the “developers” (musicians and labels) desire: AAC with Apple’s FairPlay, MP3, WMA, etc. The music doesn’t need to be rewritten, recorded, and remastered. It’s like writing Photoshop once and then pressing a button to translate it for use on Mac, Windows, Linux, etc. To draw an analogy between Mac OS licensing and the iPod/iTunes symbiotic relationship simply highlights Samsung’s director of marketing’s ignorance of the vast differences between the two business situations.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
The iPod is not the Mac, so stop trying to compare them – August 13, 2004
I don’t know why everyone is complaining. She took the media package from the nice man from Microsoft who bought her lunch. He even underlined all the choice quotes he wanted her to use. So she used them and paid for her lunch. Give her a break. This is how all analysts get their start. Soon she will be just like the big boys, you know who they are, and get envelopes stuffed full of greenbacks along with the lunch. She is just starting out. Baby steps, baby steps …..
Apple at the moment has the upper hand, so it won’t license FairPlay to other music stores or access by non-iPod devices. What MDN fails to understand is that by not licensing FairPlay, the iPod customer is limited to iTMS, the iPod, and the pricing whims of the record companies by proxy of Apple. So long as the iTMS and iPod experience is enjoyed by enough of its customers, you won’t find it limiting. As long as only iPods can access iTMS, Apple will innovate only enough to make sure it maintains it current market position.
If another company manages to be successful by integrating cutting-edge features (my pet one being direct download of pictures off my digital camera), Apple will respond. Until then, your choice is limited if perhaps no limiting.
I have 2 ipods, and an ibook, have used mac for 12 years and is my computer of choice, however i do think apple needs to loosen the grip a little on drm licensing, not much just a bit.
Fundamentally consumers dont like being tied, and surely apple should be using ipod to”sell the mac platform” and not be looking to tie people in through music.
However, Stevie thinks on a different level from most of us, and looks at a bigger picture than most of us, including a great many of the journalists who bless us with their thoughts.
So there is probibly a logical reason for not doing so (drm licensing) and i will leave it in Stevie’s capable hands, and worry about more important stuff like, what to die for product apple are gonna use next to have me rushing for my credit card. lol
Hugh
itunes MAKES the shuffle. i think the autofill feature is the shuffle’s greatest selling point. if apple opened up fairplay, they wouldn’t be able to control the software side of the experience. imagine if someone bought a shuffle and then tried to use it with some crap music manager that was “compatible” with ipods because it licensed fairplay.
it’s my view that apple is keeping a tight lid not because they want to lock out the competition, but they do not want to risk users having bad experiences with crappy music manager software.
Choice: though I can’t disagree that “a little choice” is good, I’m having a difficult time understanding why you repeatedly say that iPodders only “really” have one choice, then admit there are some DRM-free services that you “guess” are choices. Hey, I’m not slamming you, just trying to understand. You may be aluding to the fact that the DRM-free services are niche services, but aside from a few exclusive tracks that other “plays for sure” services may have, are there really any mainstream commercial tracks not on iTMS (actually asking)? I suspect some day, the right deal may come along for Apple to license Fairplay, but that’s about 30 million iPods from now.
Aside from Bleep.com, if you are a electronic music fan, there’s also Nufonix.com, both of which get props from using the high bit rate LAME standard encoding. There are several in the same genre with which I am not familiar, but they inlcude:
beatport.com
traxsource.com
dancetracks.com
I suspect that there are also store for other genres that are not necessarily mainstream. Klaatu’s post suggests to me that the jam band area is well represented.
I meant to say “A high bit rate LAME encoding”…
notably, if you are a DJ that uses Traktor or the like, traxsource also sells a higher bit rate than their default for 50 cents more per track…wish iTMS did the same…ah, THAT choice.
Some consumers actually like being tied quite a bit. Just look at all the nice little BDSM toys you can buy all over the net!
Really though (but along the same point) people don’t mind being tied as long as it’s worth it. No one wanted to be tied to WMA because it really didn’t do anything better than MP3. All of a sudden, millions don’t care about being tied to .MP4’s because they like the fact that they can buy music from the iTunes Music store and DARN the ties!
Al wins
cricket has the right point.
It’s the entire experience that is being sold. They are not meant to be separated or cluttered with internal competition. There are plenty of alternatives available on both sides of the fence.
I have over 5000 tracks that I could put on an iPod of which only a handful where purchased through iTMS. The majority of my collection have been ripped from my CDs.
So, I don’t feel ‘tied’ to an iPod at all (I’m one of the few who don’t own one YET!). Nor am I tied to iTMS!!
What is the big problem?
As far as video is concerned,it is immature fruit on the tree for now. Apple has video up its sleeve with QuickTime’s scaleable H.264 codec. When ISP technology becomes fast enough, when faster hard drives get big enough for practical movie downloading, and when enough people have this fast capability to reach critical mass (ever download iTunes songs on dial-up??), Apple will be in the right place at the right time to simply and elegantly deliver the goods to the public in general.
Why? DRM. Like music, movies will not be released online for saleable downloads without DRM, and so far, Apple’s Fairplay is the only DRM that comes even close to playing fair for consumers and for the media moguls.
Why else? By that time, Apple will have seeded the public consciousness with it’s plug-and-play-for-sure-no-matter-how-computer-illiterate-you-think-you-be ease of use, the Apple video iPod will be ripe for the picking.
The Mac mini will light the way in the meantime.
This post brought to you by the word CAN… Never say never, because Steve Jobs CAN keep saying he’ll never do [fill in the blank] until he changes his mind.
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Ooops.. choose, not chose… choosing, not chosing.
Interesting that the Cell microprocessor story and the related
Macsimum News link should show up on MDN whil I was writing my most post about this article. Macsimum News refers to “Apple’s Next Wave of the Internet”.
I rest my case.
“However, those who buy music from PC-based music stores can use more than iTunes; they can buy from a variety of different platforms and retailers supported by Windows media. For instance liquid.com, Napster, Wal-Mart, MusicMatch and so many others, many of which are selling their songs for less than 99 cents.”
Sam’s Best Cola at Wal-Mart costs less than Coke or Pepsi, yet they do not sell as much. Wonder Why?
“Plays for Sure”
Wah Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha!
Just look at the site (link below), and you’ll see why Apple are keeping iPod/iTMS closed to others:
“Look on the back of the device box to see what type of media will play back on the device. The checkmarks indicate if the device is capable of playing back audio and/or video that’s been downloaded from an online store. Additionally some devices will be able to play back media that has been purchase through an online store that offers subscription or rentals.”
http://www.playsforsure.com/WhatIsPlaysForSure.aspx
“You can match logos. When you see it on a device and on an online store you know the two work together with a no hassle. It just works!”
“WITH A NO HASSLE!” Bad grammar doesn’t look good for starters! Ha Ha nice try LOSERS!
Magic Word: Against – as in Rage Against The Micro$oft Machine.
Re: Reality Check
Looks like Mark Farish’s forward thinking may have been right all along. It was only a matter of time.
http://www.mikeindustries.com/blog/archive/2005/01/the-ipod-end-game