In an unusual open letter, Apple CEO Steve Jobs makes an appeal to the music industry to drop its demands that music be sold online only if songs are embedded with digital rights management technology. Perhaps picking up on the latest statistics which show a slow-down in the growth of digital music sales, and certainly defending Apple against the growing ranks of critics who contend Apple is trying to “lock” music buyers into the iPod with its proprietary technology, Jobs explains that the only reason Apple embeds DRM technology into the music it sells is that the record companies demanded it in the first place.
When Apple approached these companies to license their music to distribute legally over the Internet, they were extremely cautious and required Apple to protect their music from being illegally copied. The solution was to create a DRM system, which envelopes each song purchased from the iTunes store in special and secret software so that it cannot be played on unauthorized devices.
If Apple’s DRM, called FairPlay, is cracked, a possibility made more likely if Apple licenses it to third parties (as many European groups have demanded), it loses the right to sell much of the music it offers. But, piracy is still rampant despite the multiple DRM technologies out there (Microsoft and Sony each have their own proprietary DRM systems). CDs aren’t encrypted and consumers transfer music from CDs to the Internet and their portable music devices all the time. Jobs says that 97% of the digital music out there isn’t encrypted.
So, what to do? As Jobs sees it, one alternative is to continue on the current path, which, as everybody knows, hasn’t worked. The second alternative is for Apple to license its DRM technology but that will only lead to more hackers developing more tools for unlocking protected music.
The third and final option is for the record companies to give it up and release all music in unprotected MP3 format. This is the alternative Jobs recommends.
The third alternative is to abolish DRMs entirely. Imagine a world where every online store sells DRM-free music encoded in open licensable formats. In such a world, any player can play music purchased from any store, and any store can sell music which is playable on all players. This is clearly the best alternative for consumers, and Apple would embrace it in a heartbeat. If the big four music companies would license Apple their music without the requirement that it be protected with a DRM, we would switch to selling only DRM-free music on our iTunes store. Every iPod ever made will play this DRM-free music.
Even though music companies have held onto DRM as a talisman against theft, it hasn’t worked. “DRMs haven’t worked, and may never work, to halt music piracy,” Jobs writes. If anything, DRM may be working to actually lower the sales of music by placing technological burdens on web-based sellers, which lowers competition.
So if the music companies are selling over 90 percent of their music DRM-free, what benefits do they get from selling the remaining small percentage of their music encumbered with a DRM system? There appear to be none. If anything, the technical expertise and overhead required to create, operate and update a DRM system has limited the number of participants selling DRM protected music.
Wise words, but they could fall on deaf ears. Since the earliest days of Napster, the record companies have dug in their heels in a myopic kind of way, failing to grab onto opportunities that might help them not only survive but also thrive in the digital era. But, if anyone could appeal to the smarter instincts that record company executives surely must possess, it’s Steve Jobs.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 4:34 PM | Print | Comments (0)
I have a friend (Larry Honig) who keeps urging me to check out the many-faceted features of Skype. You’ll be able to record calls for podcasting purposes, conduct free conference calls, route calls to your mobile and so much more, he says.
I’m ashamed to admit that I don’t use Skype — for a variety of reasons. For one thing, I’m already too accessible to too many people. I long ago stopped running my Trillian IM software because every time I launch it, I’m bombarded with IMs.
For another thing, I don’t have the time to set things up. Although Larry has promised to walk me through all the steps, he doesn’t have to now.
Rich McIver at VoIP News flagged for me this very cool list of 25 Skype hacks that the editors have compiled. The VoIP News folks have put out a simple list with instructions that shows how Skype can be used not only for conferencing calling, audio recording, and so forth, but also how it can be used for universal chat and language translation for up to 50 languages (breaking down the global calling barriers even further), selling and scheduling consulting services, checking out other people’s music collections and much more.
That’s it. I’m finally going to become a Skype user. Over the next month, you might see little “Skype Me” logos on this and other web sites I run, and be careful when you do Skype me — I might be recording everything.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 10:59 AM | Print | Comments (0)During his keynote speech at CES, Disney CEO Bob Iger promised that the company’s overhauled and improved Disney.com site would be up and running by the end of January. With that promised launch date missed, people began speculating that Disney was experiencing problems with the highly anticipated new portal. Some even thought that new board of directors member Steve Jobs was engaging in his infamous, perfectionistic tinkering with the site.
If that’s the case, kudos to Jobs because the new Disney.com is a well-organized portal with high-quality embedded videos that promote the range of Disney’s movies, TV shows, games, characters, music and more. And although I couldn’t find any full-length videos (except for music videos), the clips, which automatically play but can be paused, are entertaining in and of themselves.
Screenshot below
(Hat tip to Rich Greenfield at Pali Research!)
Everybody knew this was coming, but today it’s official: the nation’s largest retailer, Wal-Mart, is now a major seller of downloadable movies through a pact with all six major Hollywood studios, the first online film merchant to land all the majors. The discount chain giant is selling as of now via its web site films and TV shows from Disney, Warner Brothers, Paramount, Sony, 20th Century Fox and Universal.
Although it’s going up against a bevy of competitors, including Apple, CinemaNow, MovieLink, Guba and at least a dozen other online film retailers (with Apple dominating the market with a 76% market share this year, according to my calculations), Wal-Mart has a library of 3,000 choices and is offering the downloads at a slight discount when compared to other sites ($14.88 for “Superman Returns” compared to $14.95 for the same film at CinemaNow.)
Moreover, the company hopes to bundle the downloads with DVD sales, potentially garnering more net revenue per customer. Most other web video download sites don’t offer this two-fer option.
Like most of its competitors, Wal-Mart is offering the downloads for viewing on PCs — and the site doesn’t list an option for burning the videos to DVD. Until online film distributors offer users the option of watching feature-length films somewhere else aside from their desktops or laptops, don’t expect this to be a big business for Wal-Mart or any other online film seller.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 8:03 AM | Print | Comments (0)
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