“Steven P. Jobs, Apple’s chief executive, jolted the record industry on Tuesday by calling on its largest companies to allow online music sales unfettered by antipiracy software,” John Markoff reports for The New York Times.
Markoff reports, “The Universal Music Group, the Warner Music Group and Sony BMG Music Entertainment declined to comment. But several industry executives said they viewed Mr. Jobs’s comments as an effort to deflect blame from Apple and onto the record companies for the incompatibility of various digital music devices and services.”
MacDailyNews Take: An effort to deflect blame? The blame obviously rests squarely on the shoulders of the major music labels.
Markoff continues, “A senior executive at one company, who requested anonymity to avoid straining relations with Apple, said that while labels might experiment with other forms of copy-protection software, ‘we’re not going to broadly license our content for unprotected digital distribution.'”
MacDailyNews Take: Moron, what about the unprotected digital CDs you sell? Stupidity knows no bounds at the music cartels.
Markoff continues, “Jason Reindorp, marketing director for Zune at Microsoft, said Mr. Jobs’s call for unrestricted music sales was ‘irresponsible, or at the very least naïve,’ adding, ‘It’s like he’s on top of the mountain making pronouncements, while we’re here on the ground working with the industry to make it happen. He’s certainly a master of the obvious,’ Mr. Reindorp said, adding that ‘the stars were already aligning’ to loosen the restrictions.”
MacDailyNews Take: Jobs is “irresponsible or at the very least naïve” for making mountaintop pronouncements, but his call for unrestricted music sales is “obvious” as “the stars were already aligning” to loosen the restrictions?” It’s no surprise that this idiot works for Microsoft on the Zune fiasco. And what is Microsoft working with the industry to make happen besides illogical royalty payments to the music cartels from a non-selling device?
Full article here.
Related articles:
Dvorak: Apple CEO Steve Jobs is dead right about DRM – February 07, 2007
Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ posts rare open letter: ‘Thoughts on Music’ – calls for DRM-free music – February 06, 2007
Zune……Zucks!
I think that says it all.
Didn’t Gates recently state (at some recent forum) that DRM was bad and should be removed?
Essentially this Zune Exec is saying his boss is naive as well.
Digital watermarking is a potential compromise. While the MP3 format doesn’t provide for robust watermarks MPEG-4 does. M4A is alredy the default format for iPods.
Oh good, let’s all take advice from the guy in charge of marketing the Zune. Also, the captain of the Exxon Valdez while we’re at it.
“while we’re here on the ground”
You wish you were that high up. Or was that an explanation for the Zune’s brown color?
M$ is trying to kiss up to the music industry not because they agree with them but because they precieve a common enemy–Apple.
MDN magic word: “bill” as in you-know-who Gates.
Excerpt from Gates on the Future of DRM (December 14th, 2006)
“Gates didn’t get into what could replace DRM, but he did give some reasonably candid insights suggesting that he thinks DRM is as lame as the rest of us.
Gates said that no one is satisfied with the current state of DRM, which “causes too much pain for legitmate buyers” while trying to distinguish between legal and illegal uses. He says no one has done it right, yet. There are “huge problems” with DRM, he says, and “we need more flexible models, such as the ability to “buy an artist out for life” (not sure what he means). He also criticized DRM schemes that try to install intelligence in each copy so that it is device specific.
His short term advice: ‘People should just buy a cd and rip it. You are legal then.'”
http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/12/14/bill-gates-on-the-future-of-drm/
Here it is! If the music industry said that all music could be sold DRM-free, then Apple is well-positioned to maintain the lead because of its superior music player–the iPod and its superior music management software-iTunes. Just think back in the day when all records would play on all record players … Technics had some of the best turntables. They led in their categories. Apple would do the same with music players.
Fine. If the record company wants me and all of my friends to pool our money and buy a CD and then rip it to all of our stuff (and there’s 7 of us). Fine. Screw them.
I’ll pay 2 bucks an album instead the 9.99 I’ve been paying on iTunes. If they want to restrict my music, I’m not going to let them profit from it.
Screw them.
Steve Jobs set a trap and Microsoft fell right into it.
Apple is now viewed as pro-freedom and anti-DRM even though Bill gates came out against DRM first.
Then Microsoft shoots itself in the foot by defending the very unpopular DRM standards.
Before Jobs’ open letter Apple was viewd by many as the Ipod monopoly that refused to let others play in their yard.
After the open letter, Apple is the defender of freedom and the Record Labels and now Microsoft become the bad guys!
Just brilliant.
Record companies will wake up eventually.
They’ll have to. Does anybody actually OWN a “CD Player” anymore? And if you do…do you actually USE it?
I know when I buy CD’s, I just pop it into my computer, copy it into iTunes, and transfer it onto my iPod. My “CD Player” is collecting dust in the closet.
‘the stars were already aligning’
Cancel or Allow?
just because someone has to say it, and it has not been said yet … allofmp3.com sells music in any format you want at any bit-rate you want without any DRM. The model of maximal consumer choice is one iTunes should be moving towards.
cue the comments about the Russian Mafia …
Well, yes there are people who still have a CD player, or in my case, a CD/DVD recorder. Some of us still appreciate the differances when music is played through quality (and large)multi-speakered systems. Ipod et al, as good as they are (yes, I have one), are more about convenience, than top-tier quality sound.
QUOTE
“Jason Reindorp, marketing director for Zune at Microsoft, said Mr. Jobs’s call for unrestricted music sales was “irresponsible, or at the very least naïve,” adding, “It’s like he’s on top of the mountain making pronouncements, while we’re here on the ground working with the industry to make it happen.”
“He’s certainly a master of the obvious,” Mr. Reindorp said, adding that “the stars were already aligning” to loosen the restrictions.”
FALKIRK:
I know MDN already covered this, but the contradictions contained in Jason Reindorp’s statement, above, are World Class. Jobs is irresponsible to reccomend that DRM be removed and besides Jobs is only stating the obvious when he states that DRM should be removed.
Huh? That statement is so blatently contradictory that I’m amazed that the human brain could even conceived it.
I would consider Microsoft’s stance on DRM to be more sincere if Microsoft developed a 100% uncrackable DRM. Microsoft obvious cannot make an uncrackable DRM, made no apology for their incompetence, and has yet made no effort to remedy the situation.
Jay,
Rip your music into AIFF or Apple Lossless, then play it through an Airport Express that is hooked up to your hi-fi amp and quality speakers. It’s what I do.
Just because most people are happy with lower quality files doesn’t mean that you can’t make that solution work the way you want it to.
Yeah, Jobs is on the mountain alright, a mountain of 2 billion trax sold thru the iTMS.
MS is still trying to extract itself from the valley of muck from several failed online stores and iPod-wannabes.
I still think the lack or licensening of Fairplay won’t make a whit of difference. People will still overwhelmingly use iPods, iTunes & iTMS. They just work!
Apple bought FairPlay DRM as it was a prerequisite of the music honchos as the price for the iTunes music business model and Apple, at that time, wasn’t in a position to argue the point. That was a couple of years and 90 million iPods ago.
Today, a couple of hundred million people have access to devices that can use the Apple media ecosystem (iTunes/QuickTime/iPod/TV/iPhone) and that number is only going to increase. Apple, not the RIAA/MPAA/etc, controls the code that enables these devices/software to access that content. With the Apple Corps lawsuit settled, Apple is free to enter the music business directly, bypassing the RIAA members, as the only intermediary between the artists and the consumer without a complicating lawsuit. Stated simply, the playing field is a lot more level than it was back in the day.
The motion picture and music industry seems unwilling to recognize that the business model that has lined their pockets for so many years is changing and at a pace faster than they are willing to admit. Their business model will have to change regardless of what decisions Apple makes or what artificial market constraints the MPAA/RIAA enforce through legal agreement or lobbyist bought law. The market will take care of it, and if Apple isn’t prepared to deal with it someone else will. Steve Jobs knows this all too well.
No reasonable person disputes the right of an artist to reasonable compensation for their work, nor that of others who invest in the development of media. Reasonable people do have a legitimate right to expect that DRM, bundling and consumer restrictive trade practices espoused by the RIAA/MPAA members not be used to rip off artists or end users for the excessive profits of middlemen. That’s the bottom line.
His name is “rine-dorp”
Man, that’s a load to shoulder.
It would be TOO funny if the record industry accepted that DRM was dead and agreed to distribute their online libraries as DRM free, leaving M$ still paying a buck a Zune to Universal 8^)
Oh the irony.
Jim: I think it’s hypocritical for a comapny (in this case Apple) and a CEO (in this case Jobs) that rely on predictable enforcement of intellectual property rights (in this case commercial software copyrights) to provide profitability and benefit for shareholders, to ask ANYONE else (in this case musicians and their representatives – the much-maligned record labels) to forego their rights to benefit from their own creativity, work and financial investment. I’ll take Jobs seriously when Aperture or Final Cut Pro is treated the same way that he’s advocating for music.
Did you read the lengthy open letter? Show us the paragraph where Jobs asked “ANYONE else … to forego their rights”. The copyright still belongs to them, DRM or not. All he is saying is the vast majority of music out there is sold without DRM and asking a very small subset of music business to implement it is silly. It only takes one rip from a CD to propagate on P2P to make the DRM on every song sold from music download business pointless. Without DRM, the music download business may even get bigger because the open approach allows many to make the investment. He is not asking for a sacrifice, he is advising them on how to make money. This comes from someone in charge of a company that benefits more from having the DRM in place. Hardly hypocritical, is it?
AFAIK, none of Apple products are DRMed in the way to limit the purchasers’ right to use them like the music industry wanted. Comparing them is silly.
Falkirk: Apple is now viewed as pro-freedom and anti-DRM even though Bill gates came out against DRM first.
Bill Gates is not against DRM. Microsoft is the biggest DRM proponent out there. Long before Apple came up with iTunes (Music) Store and FairPlay, Microsoft has backed DRM and TPM initiatives. What he has issue with is the fact that in the music business DRM helps his biggest competitor, Apple, and Gates can’t handle having a competitor kicking his ass. His telling people to buy CDs is just a way to tell people to stay away from Apple as the biggest store selling DRMed music.
“We’ve had DRM in Windows for years. The most common format of music on an iPod is ‘stolen.'”
– Love DRM or my family starves: why Steve Ballmer doesn’t Get It The Register (October 7th, 2004)
“Most people still steal music.”
– Ballmer talks tech Zdnet (October 5th, 2004)
“I’ve got my kids brainwashed: You don’t use Google, and you don’t use an iPod.”
– money.cnn.com
Attributed quotes:
“DRM is the future.”
“We don’t have a monopoly. We have market share. There’s a difference.”
“Developers. Developers. Developers. Developers. Developers. Developers. Developers. Developers. Developers. Developers. Developers. Developers. Developers. Developers.”
– Speech at a Microsoft Developers conference
Alex: Now that’s a great thought, thanks! I already convert to AIFF and burn to CDs the stuff I download. I could try AE as well for downloads.
I was mostly thinking of listening to commercial CDs, though. Putting them on my iPod is great, but to me the absolute best sound is playing the commercial CD through a home theater/music system.
This sure is getting good coverage. New York Times covered it and it’s on CNN as I type this. There’s public debate on the issue now.
That’s what Jason Reindorp doesn’t get. People listen to Steve Jobs; nobody cares what Jason Reindorp thinks.