“Steve Jobs has had much to celebrate lately. But the Apple CEO was particularly happy in February when he announced that the iTunes Music Store had sold its billionth song, to a teenager in Michigan who had bought a copy of Coldplay’s ‘Speed of Sound.’ That milestone is all the more impressive when you remember that Apple has numerous competitors in the digital music world. Yahoo Music Unlimited and the legal incarnation of Napster are gunning for iTunes customers. Sony and Samsung are trying to create iPod slayers,” Devin Leonard writes for Fortune. “And the field is only getting more crowded. By summer, Amazon may launch a digital music service with a branded MP3 player, possibly made by Samsung. It is already being referred to in the industry as the aPod. Amazon won’t discuss its plans, but sources tell FORTUNE that Amazon is targeting people over 40 years old–it refers to them as ‘the NPR crowd’ –who aren’t as likely to own iPods as MySpace users.”
“Yet Apple’s challengers all face the same problem: Jobs’ company will no doubt dominate the digital music market for years to come. That’s because Apple has learned its lesson about closed systems,” Leonard writes. “With the iPod, Jobs created a closed system with mass appeal. Fulcrum Global Partners estimates that iPods now account for 73% of the 30 million MP3 players currently in use in the U.S… Jobs cut a deal with the Big Five record companies in 2003 that locked up his device. The music companies wanted to sell songs on iTunes, but they were afraid of Internet piracy. So Jobs promised to wrap their songs in Apple’s FairPlay–the only copy-protection software that is iPod-compatible… That satisfied fearful music companies, but it means none of the songs sold by those services can be played on the wildly popular iPod. Instead, users of the services had to rely on inferior devices made by companies like Samsung and SanDisk that supported Microsoft’s Windows Media format.”
“The situation has been a disaster for Apple’s competitors. iTunes holds a commanding lead over its rivals, selling more than 75% of all digital songs, according to NPD. The second-place digital music store, eMusic [9%], can’t sell any major label hits because it refuses to copy protect them,” Leonard writes. “Poor Microsoft. Nearly every music service and MP3 player maker other than Apple supports Windows Media and its copy-protection software. But not enough music lovers want to use them. It’s a far cry from what happened in the desktop wars. It’s no fun when you’re outside of the closed system looking in.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Jim” for the heads up.]
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Related article:
Apple’s vs. Microsoft’s music DRM: whose solution supports more users? – August 17, 2005
Haaaaaah Haaa ala M$ first post yeahhh.
gonna be interesting to see what happens next….
How does it feel, MS?
Again this is a space where the MMC™ rears its ugly head. The Microsoft Myth of Choice would have the masses believe that using Apple is closed, yet using Windows Media format is some sort of open standard, by which Microsoft is willing to allow anyone under the tent.
It’s two companies folks. You can choose one of two, Apple or MS. Apple that makes great products that work, or MS that makes also ran technology and maybe it might work if you are lucky.
And for the record, been using iTunes since it came out and the iTMS since it came out, purchased hundreds of tracks and have yet to run into the DRM limitations that people always bash Apple for.
Poor Apple stock.. Dropping like a rock.
Apple is succeeding due to the RIAA’s stupidity. If they want to lessen Apple’s dominance, there’s only one way to do it. Remove the DRM stipulation. You do that and all of a sudden, I can purchase music from any online store and play it on any player. Wow, what a concept! And that would force Apple to give up their DRM. And life would be good. And then I might actually be willing to purchase my music online.
The new Origami devices will play Apple’s FairPlay (inside iTunes). It’s not an iPod privilege among the portables anymore.
I think Amazon is mistaken that people over 40 don’t own iPods.
Macromancer,
You may not have run into the limitations of Apple’s DRM, because you have chosen not to. They are there. You can’t play the music on other software. You can’t play the music on another portable player. You can’t play the music on a Linux system. You can’t play the music on anything but iTunes and iPods. Thats pretty limited if you ask me. Sure, you can always burn a CD and then reimport and convert, but thats not an acceptable choice. Would you still be happy if, all of a sudden, Apple prevented you from burning CD’s of your DRM’d music? They don’t let you copy their videos from iTMS, who’s to say the RIAA won’t pressure them to do the same with music down the road.
It’s simple, any DRM sucks. Apple’s just sucks less, but it still sucks. Like I said, the RIAA got themselves in this mess. And there’s only one way out. Lose the DRM.
Good point Frobots, I hadn’t thought about that. Make a portable player thats small while running an entire Windows OS in it. Then you can play any music from iTunes. Interesting.
I know plenty of people over 40 that own an iPod. Amazon is definitley on the wrong track there. NPR group – whatever.
I don’t think anyone connects the iPod with bubble gum and zits.
The iPod is beautiful, hi-tech and not cheap in any sense.
Well, thanks for playing Amazon but you don’t get it either.
Next.
If the RIAA were smart (which they obviously are not), they would have established the DRM standard themselves and licensed it to software and hardware vendors. Still limited DRM, but more choice and flexibility.
sg,
Create the DRM themselves, sort of like the MPAA did with CSS for DVD’s? Yeah, more licensed technology which prevents individuals from writing software because they can’t afford the licenses. Yeah! Lets keep the software development in the hands of the big corporations. Have you ever wondered why there are no DVD players or mp3 encoders for Linux or even for OS X that isn’t written by Apple? Licensing costs. Why can’t you find software that does AAC encoding other than iTunes? Because it costs somewhere like $25000 for the license.
iTunes is ok but I now prefer the 2nd place eMusic.com which I have been subscribed to for the past 5-6 months. I pay $9.99 monthly for 40 tracks in high quality mp3 format a month. I’ve found some really cool music on there and the files have no DRM so they work with iTunes/iPod and they are mine to keep and do what I want with. Oh, and get this I don’t illegally share my files with others. . .maybe some of the other download services should catch on to this type of model.
Jeff,
Although these loopholes will likely be patched eventually, there are ways around the iTunes DRM that, if done respectfully, do not violate any ethical issues, although you still may be stepping outside the EULA.
For example:
http://macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/3591/
There is also the Hymn Project, although I don’t know if it works with the latest iTunes yet.
Jeff:
VLC plays DVD’s on OS X just fine.
Not so fast. Microsoft’s Origami runs a version of Windows XP that’s capable of running iTunes along with compatibility with the iTMS.
Not that I think the Origami is going to be a hit or compete directly with the iPod, but that’s because of the size and cost factors.
It’s conceivable that there could be an Origami-lite that could be size and cost competitive to the iPod and be compatible with iTunes/iTMS.
“Poor Microsoft”?
Give me a ****ing break.
And what is so cool about the iPod’s market share dominating with the best product (unlike Windows dominating with the worst product) is that if the playing field levels off and the iPod starts to lose market share,
then all Apple has to do is release a firmware update to
allow the iPod to play their competions music files and
add a choice to either or both buy your song or subscribe your music.
That would drive a stake in any major competitive change in the industry and Apple is in place and ready for that,
not to mention future upgrades to iTunes in the area of movies, etc. and a possible true video iPod. The ball just keeps rolling. Dominance is ok if you have the most intuitive and best quality product. Personally, I would like to see the iPod go down and remain at about 70% market share so they would be a little more price competitive and I could get a nano at $99 instead of $150. Wishful thinking
Serves M$ so right!
Guess they don’t like beeing treated like they treat everyone else.
That said, how come Apple gets away with this?
Origami may indeed run iTunes but for how long ?
A tablet computer with a big screen, running an entire Windows OS will consume a significant amount of power. A dedicated chip in an iPod will use very little power.
Running iTunes may sound like a good feature, but running out of power isn’t going to be popular.
Of course, what we’ve seen of the Origami looks like an oversized Sega Game Gear, is big and ugly, and has horrible crummy battery life. But if someone pared down a device to just enough functionality to run iTunes, they might have a product…
Speaking of DRM, here’s something that I recently ran across with iTunes that annoyed me.
I was checking out some music recently and I noticed that a song I wanted to buy had a really cute video. So I figured, hey, I’ll buy the video rather than the song. Same thing, right?
Well, I downloaded the video and decided I would burn it to a CD. No, I didn’t expect to get the video on the CD, but I expected to get the audio. Nope. No dice. iTunes wouldn’t let me burn the song to CD. Needless to say, it was Audio Hijack and an audio editor the rescue.
Hello? Apple? It’s a Music Video. I should be able to burn Music to a CD.
I’m reminded of the old saw, “A conservative is a liberal who gut mugged.” Well, an anti-DRM person is a pro-DRM person who got screwed.
“sources tell FORTUNE that Amazon is targeting people over 40 years old–it refers to them as ‘the NPR crowd’ –who aren’t as likely to own iPods as MySpace users”
Hey, I’m 48, but sorry Amazon, no sales. Getting older does not mean getting senile. And my age bracket has enough cash not to settle for inferior products.
“$”
“Poor Apple stock.. Dropping like a rock.”
Yeah, in the last 12 months Apple stock went from $40 to …. what was it today….oh yeah, $65.
Sure dropping like a rock. Pfffffft
Learn how to invest.
Bye