“The market for legitimate music downloads is booming, but the stumbling block of incompatibility will not go away. Just ask anyone who has ever tried to put a Napster track on an iPod,” Brian Garrity writes for Billboard.
MacDailyNews Take: Why settle for asking just one? Ask all three of them.
Garrity writes, “Experts say the DRM dilemma might not be resolved for another two years. ‘It’s not going to go away quickly,’ Napster chief technology officer William Pence said at a recent DRM conference in New York.”
MacDailyNews Take: If Napster executives are such DRM experts, why do they use Microsoft’s WMA DRM instead of developing their own? Why two years? Is that how long Napster figures they’ll last?
Garrity writes, “Microsoft’s Windows Media DRM is supported on more than 60 devices and used for digital files sold by dozens of retailers, including Napster, AOL, Yahoo, RealNetworks, Virgin, FYE and Wal-Mart. Apple’s DRM is called Fair Play [sic] and works only in Apple-controlled products and services like the iPod and the iTunes Music Store.”
MacDailyNews Take: Apple’s iTunes Music Store is the only store mentioned above that supports both Mac and Windows. All of the rest that Garrity mentions support only Windows. Apple has sold more songs online than the rest of the above-mentioned outfits combined. Apple’s AAC with FairPlay DRM is the de facto standard for legal online music files. Would it matter if Windows Media were supported by over 60,000 devices if nobody were buying and using them?
MacDailyNews Major Annnouncement: We have developed a car that runs on maple syrup! Exxon is stifling the growth of our product – they need to install maple syrup pumps in their stores! In addition, we’ve developed a maple syrup pump for maple syrup cars! Toyota are stifling the growth of our maple syrup pumps – they need to make cars that run on maple syrup! We’re waiting for The New Zealand Herald and Billboard to pick up our story and help us whine to a larger audience.
Garrity writes, “As more consumers go digital, the compatibility issues between Apple and Microsoft become more pronounced. Apple, the early market leader, has been particularly resistant to shaking hands in the interest of compatibility.”
MacDailyNews Take: The vast majority of consumers are choosing iPods and using Apple’s iTunes Music Store on their Macs or Windows PCs. A song is a song and Apple offers the largest legal music library at consistent prices. Why should Apple give away their business to other music outfits or sell songs for players from which they derive no profit? Solely for the “interest of compatibility?” That’s some business plan. Apple would have a tough time getting shareholder approval for that one.
Garrity writes, “More than 184 million digital tracks were sold in the United States this year through the end of July, according to Nielsen SoundScan. That is almost double the amount sold during the same period in 2004. Still, some digital-music executives say compatibility problems are slowing the growth of legitimate download sales and subscription services.”
MacDailyNews Take: Apple’s iTunes Music Store surpassed 300 million songs sold on March 2, 2005 and surpassed 500 million songs on July 18, 2005. Thats’ over 200 million songs right there, in only 4 and a half months. It’s a safe bet that of the 184 million songs sold in the U.S. that Garrity mentions, almost all of them were sold by Apple. So, Apple is slowing down the growth of legitimate download sales? Come on. Apple created the market and it responsible for nearly all of its growth. Apple’s slowing down subscription services somewhat, maybe, since Apple doesn’t offer that option (mainly because it still hasn’t proven to be worth it), but consumers clearly seem to want to own their music much more than they want to rent it, as Apple proven over half a billion times. The only real growth Apple has slowed is the growth of their competitors.
Garrity continues, “Even the CD presents DRM issues, because Apple has not licensed Fair Play for inclusion on copy-protected discs, thus making secure CDs incompatible with the iPod, the most popular portable player with more then 15 million units sold.”
MacDailyNews Take: Those so-called CDs are not Red Book compliant, so they are not even CDs. Apple has sold well over 21 million iPods and counting.
Full article here.
The only people whining are portable digital device makers, online music outfits, and DRM peddlers that are not named Apple. Consumers, meanwhile, are happily buying iPods, importing music from Red Book compliant Compact Discs that they own, and using the iTunes Music Store on both Macs and PCs. The whining that we hear is coming from companies that are losing or have already lost to Apple’s superior symbiotic music solution, iPod+iTunes+iTunes Music Store, not from consumers.
The online music outfits are quite unhappy because the music they sell can’t easily and seamlessly be played on the device most people have chosen to own, Apple’s iPod. The portable digital music player makers are unhappy because very few want their players. People obviously want iPods instead and also wish to utilize Apple’s iTunes Music Store for it’s large library, podcast features, liberal DRM, consistent pricing, exclusives, etc. Microsoft is doubly unhappy because their proprietary WMA DRM is not the de facto standard for portable digital music player or online music services. These three factions, the online music outfits, the portable digital music player makers, and Microsoft, will continue the wails of their death throes via willing and/or ignorant media outlets, but that doesn’t mean that Apple has to change a thing until or unless they see a sound business case for doing so.
It’s the losers (Napster, Microsoft, Sony, Creative, iRiver, RealNetworks, etc.) that are whining. Not music buyers. Not music player buyers. Not Apple. Apple is too busy selling iPods and music online to care about the losers’ sour grapes.
Lastly, achieving a monopoly is legal. It’s monopoly abuse that is illegal, as Microsoft knows all too well. Apple isn’t forcing anyone to buy iPods or use their iTunes Music Store. Consumers are choosing to do so of their own free will. In droves.
[UPDATE: 8/13, 10:05am ET: Changed headline.]
Related article:
The New Zealand Herald serves up a steaming pile of iPod FUD – August 11, 2005
The de facto standard for legal digital online music files: Apple’s protected MPEG-4 Audio (.m4p) – December 15, 2004
They whine about iTunes yet the others don’t even support Macs. And the other services don’t have the great DRM that Apple has. And there to stupid to make there own. Like MacDailyNews says why should Apple give away there profits to the others. Did Microsoft do that when they were winning the OS wars, NO! This is called the best product wins in a free society and Apple has the best music download system period. Easy to use on both Mac and Windows which none of the others even offer. The best portable player with the best music store. So that is just to bad for the others now isn’t it.
OpJ,
The reason it is in your best interest that Apple NOT license Fairplay is because Apple has created the ONLY truly successful legal music download ecosystem, an advancement that has pushed the online music industry forward like no other, and its use of proprietary DRM is as essential in its formula as the iPod hardware, the iTunes software, and the iTMS. In order to continue pushing the online music industry forward, it’s in everybody’s best interest that Apple maintain its formula as is until Apple sees fit to change the game play.
What is the real point here?
Is it incompatibility and competition or is it rather getting consumer feet wet for Trusted Computing and Digital Restrictions Management?
Here some independent info on TC and DRM:
Trusted Computing FAQ by Professor Ross Anderson
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/tcpa-faq.html
DRM and Copy Protection Schemes
http://www.eff.org/IP/DRM
Your General-Purpose PC –> Hollywood-Approved Entertainment Appliance
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/003882.php
An Optimistic Vision of a Future with TC and DRM
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1847514,00.asp
An Alternative to TC and DRM
MusicFreedom Presents Another Way For Artists To Get Their Music To Fans
http://www.webpronews.com/news/ebusinessnews/wpn-45-20050805TheSellOfMusic.html
MW: “training,” as in, Apple is training the digital download music industry
If it weren’t for Apple in the first place, there wouldn’t be any boom in digital music downloads at all!
It’s in our best interests for Apple not to license FairPlay because the iPod and iTunes “just work”. Start introducing third parties into the equation and you lose that reliability.
I’m still waiting for someone to explain why it is a good thing for me, or any other consumer, that Apple won’t license Fairplay.
Tick tock tick tock.
Anyone?
————————
Vertical Integration is a no-brainer for Consumer Electronics.. only Apple is willing to do it for Computers (Game Companies do it for Consoles..)
Now.. the iPod is basically vertically integrated.. Apple does pick up Synaptics tech, and throw together the parts from various suppliers, but, the iTunes player, and the iPod are made for each other.
With an 80% marketshare in player and iTMS markets… Apple is in no rush to license.
But.. you ask.. why NOT license.. there is NOT downside!
Are you kidding? Making other players work with iTunes the way the iPod works with iTunes.. aren’t you helping out the competition?
Why would you want to lose potential ITMS future revenues?
The most important aspect is that Apple would take slack for… say.. Creative’s shortcomings. Someone would complain that their Creative Player sounded like shit.. or iTunes was misfiring on the sync and Apple would look like a scrappy mediocre player.
By focusing on EXCELLENCE.. not ‘good enough’.. Apple’s brand is sterling.
More future profits, More brand integrity
Also, just to finish off the argument from my point of view.
iTMS performance in 2003: somewhere around 230,000 downloads/day
iTMS performance in 2004: around 475,000 downloads/day
iTMS performance in 2005: around 1.4 million downloads/day
So, whatever else is causing a delay in the development of the digital downloads market, the iTunes platform and its alleged incompatibility with several dozen ugly, half-assed players and various WMA stores, would not appear to be responsible.
Here’s a thought: maybe the development of the WMA legal download industry is being held back because it is simply too difficult to use.
Too much choice: from Korean monoliths to “boutique” (i.e. too small to be significant) players created from OEM components, there are way too many personal music players with too many potential integration problems.
Too much choice: seriously, how many media players does the Windows market need? WinAmp, Windows Media Player, Musicmatch, etc. Surely, they all do the same thing – take an audio file and play it through some speakers. It’s not like as if any of them add value like iTunes by integrating a store or the management of players.
Too much choice: And what is is the point in having a dozen or more music stores all offering the same 500,000 to 1.5 million track catalogues: the only thing that does is create consumer confusion as they try to work out what is the best DRM deal for the money.
So you have too many players to integrate with too many media players whilst trying to ensure that the DRM from all the sites you might buy from works on a diverse range of players, some of which might have been produced by “get rich quick” OEMs who are no longer in business and no longer releasing firmware/software updates to address problems in the field.
iTunes/iPod/iTMS is successful simply because it takes a problem and deals with it in a holistic, rather than monopolistic, manner: it also recognises that 99%+ of the music that exists out there in customer collections exists in a physical CD form, whilst the rest of the industry obsesses about digital delivery.
Seriously, these people need to get a grip.
Well said MCCFR
I think this can be summed up one of MDN’s comments:
“It’s the losers (Napster, Microsoft, Sony, Creative, iRiver, RealNetworks, etc.) that are whining. Not music buyers. Not music player buyers.”
The most irritating thing to me is hearing about how the recording industry wants to raise prices … pure greed … they get the largest chunk from each ITMS sale … and it must already be close to pure profit on their part since they don’t have to create a physical product (ie. a CD) or ship it all over the planet. Over time, I imagine the only company whose actual costs go up is Apple since they host the store and manage the accounting.
Several colleagues have purchased iPods after I did early last year … all of them are Windows users and everyone of them has commented to me how easy/simple the iPod/iTunes/ITMS combination is to use. Many competitors to Apple forget that the vast majority of customers have no desire to become a geek simply to get their MP3 player to work.
As has been said before, when the market demands such a move (customers, NOT competitors), Apple will do so.
Goo job, MDN.
It is in every mac users interest that Apple license FairPlay for CD playback because if it doesn’t future DRM protected CDs will not play on Macintosh computers or iPods. The only alternative will be downloading poor sound quality iTune music store files.
justified said, “it’s in everybody’s best interest that Apple maintain its formula as is until Apple sees fit to change the game play.”
let me see if i understand this correctly. it is in my interest to be against licensing and follow Apple until Apple decides to change. Then, because Apple decided to change its plan it is in my interest to support the change? Wow! Someone has been drinking the Kool-Aid big time.
Any CD that is ever sold in a store has to be able to play on a “dumb” $20 portable CD player or car stereo CD player. Those players don’t know anything about encryption or strange formats. That fact alone means it will be a very very long time before we see any credible “secure CD” format – the customer backlash from finding CD’s that won’t play in conventional CD players would be too large.
The secure-CD’s that are out now are kind of a joke – even though Windows trips ups on them, the Mac rips them fine – wanna bet OS X on PC hardware can rip them as well? It’s because the discs still have unencrypted audio on them.
I believe to make that kind of change really happen, the entire CD player industry would have to be evangelized to include that extra functionality, on every player, for some years, to ensure significant market uptake. And we will continue to hear noises about “industry forces” that want to do that.
the issue here is not about loser downloading service like Napster complaing that their music won’t play on iPods. this is about the recording industry not wanting one company to control the distribution of its product. Apple is beginning to monopolize the music downloading business. It is NOT in the recording industry’s best interest to have its short hairs held tightly by Apple.
With most computer users being on Windows, and the availability of 60+ portable digital music player choices (iPod notwithstanding), and plenty of music download services (Napster — having been around as long as it has and having the name recognition that it does), the competition SHOULD, by any sense of logic, be fierce for Apple. But the numbers show that no combination of the above offered a desirable solution for online digital music distribution/digital music management/portable music players. AND, Apple was a late comer onto the scene.
it’s absurd to assert that Apple is holding back the industry. Apple has provided the ONLY forward push in the industry.
So, what IS slowing the growth of the industry? What’s slowing the growth is that only ONE company is leading the charge. Niche player Apple. Beleaguered Apple. Going-out-of-business-for-the-last-20-years Apple.
The only people crying about Fairplay are Apple’s half-baked competitors (who wouldn’t know the definition of Complete Solution if it were written on the palms of their hands) and consumers who are unhappy with their choice in portable music players.
diamond,
I realize the concept of “leading the charge” and schooling the industry is a bit esoteric. Try to keep up.
Regarding “the recording industry not wanting one company to control the distribution of its product. Apple is beginning to monopolize the music downloading business.”
Uh, no. Can you say Napster? AOL? Yahoo? RealNetworks? Virgin? FYE? Wal-Mart? Not to mention the music mega-stores.
People have plenty of choice. Buy a Creative or Roxio or whatever, and download from Yahoo! or AOL. If your concern is Apple monopolizing the business, don’t purchase from iTMS. Support Virgin instead. You’ll be supporting choice AND a record label.
By the way, there is no “recording industry.” There are separate record labels. And they are each in competition with one another. So, it’s not like all these labels are suddenly in harmony against Apple the predator. Note that some labels have yet to strike a deal with Apple — a clear sign the “the recording industry not wanting one company to control the distribution of its product” is farcical imagination.
Imagine if the shoe was on the other foot and the ‘whiners’ had the market and Apple was a small player, would they give a flying flapjack for Apple and demand that they be given a ‘even go’?
As for the Kiwi guy, all I can say is he is evenly balanced because he has chips on both shoulders and being a Kiwi suffers from small country syndrome.
…that some in the music industry dare to complain about Apple slowing the growth of downloading. These are the same idiots that didn’t want to, and then couldn’t figure out how to create a music download store. These are the same donkeys that tried to wish away digital music and the internet in the 90s. Apple slowing downloads? Probably. However, you stupid muppet music execs, without Apple, the growth would be far lower than it has been with them.
Here’s an idea – get the other dumbshits to make a better product and then Apple won’t dominate.
and stop trying to copy protect CDs! It just pisses off the consumer and make people want to pirate that CD.
Diamond:
Please try to understand…
[B]Copy-protected CDs are not real CDs!![/B]
We need to send a message to the music industry – in particular Sony BMG, who appear to be the worst culprits = that we know that they are trying to subvert a format that has stood for nearly 25 years because they have neither the creativity to find music that we are willing to buy not the business nous to price the creatively-bankrupt product they do produce in line with what the market is willing to pay.
Copy-protected CDs won’t make music sales go up – people won’t buy them (I know I don’t)
Suing people in court won’t make music sales go up – it’s not like the people who downloaded the music from illegal P2P networks are ending up in court.
Pricing CDs at levels above the capability of the market won’t help music sales go up – people only have so much disposable income for discretionary expenditure; God alone knows what makes the music industry think they have a divine right to most of it.
Churning out hundreds of identikit R&B artists, boy bands and girl bands with their stylists and their choreographers and their indistinguishable output won’t help make music sales go up.
Reducing the number of albums and singles released each year won’t help music sales go up – Or are they expecting us to but more than one copy.
OpJ says: “Chosing a player shouldn’t have anythign to do with choosing services. One is a player. A chunk of plastic and metal.”
That’s a fallacy. Plastic and software can’t work without the other. Apple has the upper hand because it can count on the consistency of its products; unlike the disorganized Microsoft cartel.
Apple has hit on a solution that works today. Just because Microsoft didn’t create it doesn’t mean that it should be denigrated. The music industry ought to quit kowtowing to Microsoft, raise Apple’s glove in the air declaring it the winner, and declare Fairplay the standard.
Just because something is in the consumer’s best interest doesn’t mean a company should do it. Selling me a dual 2.7 GHz PowerMac for $199 (or even $499) is in my (the consumer’s) best interest but certainly not Apple’s.
OpJ and diamond: I think we all agree that licensing FairPlay is seemingly in the consumer’s best interest because we would likely have more products to choose from. But if doing so puts Apple out of business, then it is not in a Mac or iPod owner’s best interest, especially given that the alternatives are Microsoft (monopolistic) or Real (crappy intrusive software) or Sony (DRM kings, no MP3). We have had ample opportunity to check out their anti-consumer behaviors.
Apple’s “fanatical” support and loyalty from its users is because we trust Apple to do what’s best for Apple and for us based on the wonderful experiences we have had with Apple’s products and services. Today, Apple has the highest brand loyalty of any computer company, and possibly, any company in any field. Maybe your not understanding that causes you to call us sycophants. But if we found that Apple was really screwing us, this loyalty would disappear fairly quickly.
So make a good and reasonable argument why licensing FairPlay is also in Apple’s best interest and then maybe we could talk.
They have tried and tried to compare Apple to Sony’s “Betacam” debacle. The funny thing is, look how successful Sony has been even despite losing to the “VHS” machine? And look at where VHS is today…going the way of the 8-track! Too funny. Every time I hear the “death knell” I just want to buy more Apple stock.
Andrew Hamilton
Hamilton International Productions
http://www.hiproductions.com
It’s easy to put a Napster track on a iPod and you don’t even have to pay for the music!
First get a PC and a Napster subscription account
fill your hard drive less than half full with as much as the good songs as they will allow you to have. (good ones you have to pay for, just forget those)
Now get yourself a slightly older copy of WinAmp and the plug in OutPut Stacker. Now play all the crapster music through winamp and the plug in will make a nice copy of the subscription music without paying for it or any DRM.
(you can easily fin instructions on dozens of web sites)
tag it and bag it, trade cd’s with your friends and rip it into iTunes and then onto your iPod.
A little secret is Napster is allowing multiple PC connections to the same subscription account.
But it’s just eaiser to buy iTMS if you got the money.
In digital music sales they not only are trying to leverage the market’s choice of the iPod as a mandated choice of iTMS as the only music store, but also aren’t letting anyone have any other way to get copy protected tracks onto the iPod.
It’s because selling music online makes just about no profit, it’s a loss leader for the iPod. Plain and simple. And the iPod is a carrot for a Mac, plain and simple.
That’s Apple’s buisness plan and they are not going to mess with their perfectly working program.
Let the vast amount “devices” and “services” come up with a truly innovative and creative product and they can run the program like they wish if the public decides they want it.
Right now they don’t, Apple is the choice because they were first and they are the oldest, they treat their customers right.