“The music download service Rhapsody has stepped up competition against Apple’s iTunes by making its catalog of five million songs available without electronic restrictions on playback or duplication,” Ben Sisario reports for The New York Times.
MacDailyNews Take: On June 19, 2008, Apple announced that music fans had purchased and downloaded over five billion songs from the iTunes Store and that iTunes is the number one music retailer in the US with the largest music catalog with over eight million songs. That’s 3 million more than Rhapsody (and about 4,999,999,999 more tracks sold, too). The competition’s really been stepped up there, Ben.
“With its announcement on Monday, Rhapsody, a joint venture by RealNetworks and MTV Networks, became the latest digital music service to do away with digital rights management, or D.R.M., which prevents users from making unauthorized copies of songs and can also determine which electronic devices can be used to listen to the songs,” Sisario reports.
“Apple has used D.R.M. since it began selling music on iTunes five years ago… but the other major download services, Amazon.com, Napster, Wal-Mart and eMusic, all sell music without restrictions,” Sisario reports.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple offers over 2 million DRM-free music tracks in its iTunes Store (from EMI and many independent labels). In fact, it was Apple CEO Steve Jobs who called for the end of music DRM in the first place. You’re welcome, Real. Apple would offer all tracks DRM-free if the remaining music cartels weren’t colluding against iTunes in a transparent effort to prop up Apple’s roadkill like the aforementioned Real Rhapsody. Instead of regurgitating press releases, do some research next time, Ben.
Contact: New York Times: