“Let me present the first ‘This Won’t Work With That’ awards, honoring self-serving perpetrators of toxic incompatibilities,” Steven Levy writes for Newsweek.
Levy writes, “Third prize goes to the satellite radio services Sirius and XM. It’s a good idea to offer people the opportunity to subscribe to quality, ad-free radio, but a bad idea to have two systems that don’t work with each other… Second prize goes to Apple CEO Steve Jobs for selling songs on the iTunes Music Store that play on iPods, but not on anyone else’s music players. Also, Apple has rigged the iPod so that (un-less [sic] you perform some digital surgery) songs purchased from other online stores won’t play on it. Jobs’s explanation is that it’s not something users are asking for, and if a groundswell of users clamor for compatibility, he’ll consider it. Take my word for it, Steve—when people pay for music, they want it to be playable on any device they choose… And the grand-prize winner? America Online, for shamefully maintaining AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) as a closed system.”
Full article here.
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Apple’s iTunes Music Store sells music (and video) for iPods. It works seamlessly for the end user. If you buy an also-ran digital player, you don’t get Apple iTunes in the box, so use whatever service that player maker recommends, if it’s still in business. Good luck. Our advice, buy an iPod and use the iTunes Music Store. That way, you’ll get the best device, use the best jukebox software, and get the best, most-comprehensive online store. What Levy complains about is obviously not something many users are asking for, since iTunes Music Store dominates its market even more than the iPod dominates the portable digital music player market.
Only Apple’s iTunes Music Store supports both Mac and Windows PC users. So, Levy should really be awarding the Napsters, Yahoos, and whatever other outfits are still operating his award for supporting only Windows PCs and leaving Mac users to, as usual, “settle” for the best. It’s interesting that Levy singles out Apple’s iTunes Music Store, the only major online music store that supports both Mac and Windows users, but doesn’t complain that, oh, for example, Sony PlayStation games aren’t playable in Microsoft’s Xbox and vice versa, or that, hmm, Autodesk doesn’t make AutoCAD for Mac OS X, Microsoft rigging Outlook to make it difficult to move information to Mac OS X’s Mail*, Motorola cell phone batteries don’t power Nokia phones, or even that GM auto parts don’t work in Fords.
Of course, iPods also play a variety of formats, of course, including AAC (16 to 320 Kbps), Protected AAC (from iTunes Music Store), MP3 (16 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 2, 3 and 4), Apple Lossless, WAV, AIFF. And Apple’s iTunes software application supports importing in high-quality AAC, high bit-rate MP3 with no extra fee, AIFF CD audio, and automatic conversion of your existing music collection from unprotected WMA, among other formats.
Apple’s iTunes Music Store exists to provide content for Mac and Windows personal computer and iPod users. It doesn’t exist to provide content for Apple’s iPod “competitors.” Consumers don’t seem to have a problem with iPod+iTunes, but certain writers and Apple competitors certainly do. If people suddenly started flocking to an iPod and/or iTunes competitor, Apple would surely consider licensing FairPlay. Of course, as Levy probably knows, people are flocking to iPod+iTunes, so the issue and Levy’s second place “award” are meaningless.
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.
* To free yourself from one of the most-blatant of self-serving Microsoft’s toxic incompatibilities and get your stuff the hell out of Outlook and onto your Mac, take a look at Little Machine’s US$10 Outlook2Mac: http://www.littlemachines.com/
Related articles:
Apple’s roadkill whine in unison: ‘incompatibility is slowing growth of digital music’ – August 12, 2005
The de facto standard for legal digital online music files: Apple’s protected MPEG-4 Audio (.m4p) – December 15, 2004
Levy fails to mention that the key to my Honda doesn’t work on his Mercedes. Shame on automakers.
MW: gave. We gave them there journalists way too much freedom to be dumbasses.
Listen, y’all. Steven Levy is the founding father of Mac boosterism, being the author of “Insanely Great” and all. He’s not just another Mac basher.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0140291776/getamac
Excellent take. I tell people this all the time. You can burn CDs from iTunes and play them anywhere you like. You can rip songs from your personal CDs and put them on your iPod.
No one is being forced to do anything. Get a life, Levy.
~M
Heroin,
I don’t give a rat’s ass if Levy is Steve Jobs’ biological father – he’s flat out wrong here.
I think it’s funny for him to say that “Apple has rigged it” without perhaps considering that the OTHER sellers of digital music havent sold in a format that can play on iPods. It’s like Apple went out of their way to make the iPod incompatible.
I think not. The iPod supports any non-DRMed MP3 file, of which ive purchased a ton through services that dont put DRM on them. Apple certainly isn’t rigging my iPod to be incompatible with those sites.
Yet another article worthy of “News-weak” magazine.
I have read Insanely Great (even have it at hand since I’m reading it again after just finishing Apple Confidential 2.0).
Great book to be sure, but it doesn’t mean he isn’t wrong on this. The iPod is hands down the best player on the market. To be more correct, the iPod/iTMS model is the best available. If people choose to use this, it is not Apple forcing them to do anything.
It is well within Apple’s rights to keep their technology/software/DRM, etc. to themselves. They own it, they should say what happens to it. I have 5 iPods (no 5G, yet) and I have never had a problem putting whatever I want on them to listen.
Levy wrote a great book, but let’s be honest and consistent. When Enderle says something right, I’m willing to admit it (as rare as it is) and when Levy is wrong, I’m going to call him on it.
I never said he was a basher, just wrong. And yes, if you haven’t read his book, by all means get it.
~M
“Take my word for it, Steve—when people pay for music, they want it to be playable on any device they choose…”
I agree. I’ve been trying for years to get this damned K.C. and the Sunshine Band cassette to play on my CD player, but it doesn’t even fit in the slot!
So, what you’re saying, Levy, is that when people pay for MP3s, they should play on cassette players, and when people pay for vinyl, it should play on an MP3 player, and so on. It’s just not possible to play any paid for music on any device of choice. I challenge you to name for me any format that is universal.
Fred,
What’s he wrong about? He’s complaining about the general trend toward closed, proprietary systems. That’s a valid complaint and he’s entitled to his opinion. There’s nothing “wrong” about what he’s saying at all, even if Apple has valid business reasons for wanting to remain closed and proprietary.
Apple should look at the battle as between AAC and WMA. It should license out FairPlay and make it the standard DRM on an assortment of approved devices — Blu-ray players, home stereo bridges, car stereo systems, more cell phones.
The larger the AAC/FairPlay ecosystem is, the better for Apple.
It’s embarassing to see the unwillingness here to admit that maybe this guy has a point. Wouldn’t it be nice — nothing legal here, but talking convenience and “playing well with others” — if customers who liked a different music player than the iPod could still use iTunes?
What other music stores? As a Mac user, I’m locked out by toxic incompatibilities.
you mindless mac drone idiots would eat your young if they said a precious word against Dear Leader Jobs and Big Apple. Levy is one of your own who is arguing against closed systems, yet here you are gleefully chewing his bones because you perceive a slight against Apple (even tho he is/was a well known mac evangelist defacto).
Stupid mac drones. Get some.
IU have to agree with Heroin on this – Apple has little to loose by licensing AAC encoding to others. So what if someone wants to give iPod compaitble music rental a try? So what if a blogger wants to pay Apple $99 to be able to encode in DRM fairplay and sell their works?
The downside to Apple is that it may put pricing pressure on the iTMS – right now Apple could hike prices and I for one have no recourse because I’m “locked in”. And unless Apple licenses the ability to DECODE fiarplay, no one is toppling iPod off the mountain top.
MDN word: million
Levy’s trolling for attention again. I generally find his writing interesting, but in this case, he’s worked to hard to bait the Mac faithful. Consider the title of the “award” here: “self-serving perpetrators of toxic incompatibilities.” It’s just flame-bait. Sure, he could have also tagged all those other iTMS-wannabes, as well as Microsoft and its silly “Plays-for-Sure.” But he picked on the gorilla in this space, knowing full well it will garner attention.
As for that last anonymous comment, customers who like a different player than an iPod can use iTunes…..just not to as great a depth as owners of iPods can. Where, oh where, is it written than a company–whether it is Apple or AOL–must open its systems to users outside its”ecosystem” on the same level as those who have paid to get inside?
Dear Nameless Coward,
You’re right. We mac drones should get some. We’re just wankers who need girls. Thanks for setting us all straight.
You white trash, inbred, turd munching, sheep f**ker. Be a man. Post a name. Contribute with something meaningful.
I don’t care what he’s talking about, he’s wrong. Apple’s system remains the most “open” that there is out there, so if he wants to complain, he should be complaining about the even more proprietary WMA/Plays For Sure system.
Whether he or anyone else likes it or not, in the end, Apple is a business. If he wants something truly and totally free and open, he needs to look to the open source community (not toward a business like Apple) to provide what he’s asking for.
justified out of his butt wrote:
“challenge you to name for me any format that is universal.
DRM is not a format it is a way to keep data from being read by other players
All LPs were available to being played by other record players
All cassettes could be playe by other manufacturers cassette players
All CD’s can play on other manufactures machines.
have I lost you here bubba?
What part of format do you not understand?
The issue here being that:
ALL digital music should be able to be played on other digital players.
MW = wall as in you should not have banged your head against the wall that often
http://homepage.mac.com/jrobillard/iPodz.mp4
he has a very valid point. i’m tired of buying stuff and having the company i bought it from tell me where and when im supposed to use it. imagine if you bought a cd, and it only worked on kenwood cd players? what right does the cd label have to tell me what i can play it on? comparing car keys is ridiculous. this is a matter of owning what you pay for and using it any damn way you want to, after all you payed for it, right? apple is just trying to keep there dominance in this field, and that is how they do it, bottom line.
there is an increasing trend towards consumers losing there right to choose, and of ownership.
My company is finally upgrading its servers to Exchange 2003, so I will be able to move from the Outlook 2001 client in Classic to MacOS X native Entourage. If I go one step further to MacOS X Mail, will I still be able to use the calendaring feature integrated with Exchange 2003 server? I would love to dump as much M$ baggage as possible, but I have to maintain a seamless calendar interface.
Heroin
I agree with what you are saying here EXCEPT with the poor use of
“ecosystem” – sure Gates used it before to refer to technology but that does not legitimize it. ecosystems has its root in ecology. now here chose how the any computer family fits that your choice word.
e·col·o·gy P Pronunciation Key (-kl-j)
n. pl. e·col·o·gies
The science of the relationships between organisms and their environments. Also called bionomics.
The relationship between organisms and their environment.
The branch of sociology that is concerned with studying the relationships between human groups and their physical and social environments. Also called human ecology.
The study of the detrimental effects of modern civilization on the environment, with a view toward prevention or reversal through conservation. Also called human ecology.
The beginning of wisdom is to call things by the right name
-Einstein
You don’t have to buy music from the iTunes store.
AlanD,
MW = dung, as in; F#&K OFF, you toothless, dung eating, barn dweller.
well done
this is shite toxic news that deserves discrete defacing on the news stand