You’ve probably heard the news that DRM is doomed. If Steve Jobs says it, it must be true. It’s hard not to say “I told you so” when, well, I told you so.
Jobs’ proclamation raises an interesting question. Once DRM is dead and buried what happens to all of the music that’s been sold in DRM protected formats?
Apple has sold a couple billion FairPlay encoded songs through iTunes, and outlets like Napster have sold untold numbers of PlaysForSure encoded songs. While those songs will continue to play on the current generation of hardware, there’s no guarantee that manufacturers will continue to support discarded DRM formats in the future.
What happens to the poor saps who’ve actually paid $0.99 each for all those billions of iTunes songs? It’s like their music libraries are ticking time-bombs waiting to expire. Just hope the Boston Police don’t hear about this.
Consumers who invested heavily in iTunes can always continue to buy iPods since it’s likely that Apple will continue to support the FairPlay format even after they discontinue selling DRM protected music (although there are no guarantees). But who wants to be stuck with a DRM protected music library in an era of unprotected music? You might as well own 8-track tapes.
While Jobs’ acknowledges that DRM is bad for consumers, he’s show no indication of having a plan for helping consumers once DRM is finally eliminated. If Jobs is serious about killing off DRM, he should also have a transition plan to support consumers who’ve built substantial music libraries that are locked down by Apple’s proprietary format.
Apple should commit to doing one of two things if/when they finally get the go ahead to sell unprotected music from the major labels:
- Allow their customers to download unprotected versions of all of the music they’ve already purchased from iTunes, or
- Provide software that will strip the DRM off of encoded iTunes songs without compromising the audio quality.
While nothing is certain, it does appear that the days of DRM protected music may finally be coming to an end. In the meantime, there is absolutely no reason for anyone to continue purchasing iTunes or any other proprietary music format until all of this is sorted out.
While I agree that Apple should offer one of those solutions, I would argue that people who purchased DRM music from iTunes still aren’t in the same boat as those who purchased DRM music in PlaysForSure or Zune formats.
If Apple doesn’t offer those solutions, iTunes customers can take the burning and ripping back door that FairPlay has always allowed. I’ll betcha that many have done that from the start.
I’ve purchased quite a few songs from iTunes (especially things that aren’t available anywhere else), and the first thing that I do with each and every one is turn them into .mp3z.
It’s really not much more difficult than ripping from a pre-recorded CD, and actually faster than ripping was back in the late 1990s. Thank the gods for CD-RW!
That’s me, though, and that’s because I’ve never considered my iPods storage devices, just playback devices. As a matter of fact, even if I’ve purchased something from iTunes, the version on my iPod is the converted .mp3 of that song.
I was waiting for an Apple Apologist to step up and say that Apple gives everyone the freedom to convert their own music one CD at a time.
It’s not the same thing Jim. There are people (possibly insane) who’ve purchased thousands of iTunes songs. Most of these people likely don’t convert their music as they purchase it. IF Apple is able to drop DRM they need to provide their customers with an automated way of stripping DRM from an entire collection in a single process. In fact, it should be built into a future version of iTunes.
This is one of the ways you’ll know that Steve Jobs is serious, and not just playing games with the labels. Otherwise he’s just another DRM vendor locking his customers into the Apple brand.
For all iTunes purchases I usually burn a CD as backup. Then I can either re-import or convert to mp3z. I’m happy to use the AAC format for storage on the iPod as it offers more room for songs. Also, I recommend the free software download of Senuti so that you can easily move songs from you iPod to your computers, and back.
But in all honesty, I think iTunes will take a “buyer beware” approach and not offer any way of retrofitting their music already sold. Too much hassle.
My big complaint is that they need to offer songs at a higher bit rate. 128 is too darned small. They need to fix that and offer songs either uncompressed (maybe at a higher price) or at higher bit rates. Only fair!
I’m hardly an Apple Apologist. It is a fact that iTunes is slightly different from Napster, et. al. I was just pointing that out, in case someone comes across this article via a future search and didn’t know you could do that. Public service.
My guess is that Apple will never offer any de-DRMing method from previous purchases, and that Jobs is messing with the major labels, just to see what their reaction is.
My other guess is that the people who purchased DRMd music from iTunes and never converted it — or from Napster & Zune — are like those of us who bought 1000s of vinyl albums. Only, in this case, they don’t even have the option of turning their music into wall art.
Yes! Thanks!
There’s plenty to Jobs’s statement that was deliberately opaque and/or just plain wrong, but it’s true that we seem to be headed in a good direction. For example, as you alluded to, his little schpiel about 97% of content on iPods being DRM free. A more telling stat would be of people who use the iTunes store (not just the software) how many songs do they have in a DRM protected format. I’d guess a fair share of new users have exclusively DRMed content.
The big cover job is his claim that FairPlay can not be shared. DVD is a shared standard format with DRM and while that DRM has been broken (multiple times), DVDs sell better than ever. A better explanation of this stance is required before we move on to MP3 (of which I’m a fan and the format I use exclusively by ripping CDs).
Anway, I wrote a column about it, which I think you can get to by clicking on my name. Thanks for making people more aware of DRM issues! This is what we need!
Since DRM is kind of a fuzzy topic, I thought exploring this through an analogy would be useful. I posted it on my blog, but will excerpt it here:
FairBagels
Posted by Jim Greer 9 hours ago
FairBagels
Let’s imagine a catering company called Apple Catering. Apple Catering is a division of Apple Breakroom Supplies, which sells coffee makers, soda machines, and other stuff used in breakrooms at offices. Apple also makes the iPlate, the world most popular portable food-carrying device.
Apple realizes that there is money to be made selling bagels in these breakrooms. Office workers would gladly pay $0.99 for the convenience of buying a bagel right at the office – much easier than going down to the bakery for a whole box of bagels. The only hitch is that it would need to work on the honor system – office workers could take a bagel, and would be asked to drop the $0.99 in a jar.
Apple Catering approaches the “big four†bakers. The bakers agree that it’s a good market, but are worried that people won’t put the money in the jar. They ask Apple Catering to put padlocks on the bagels.
Apple Catering tells the bakers that it is impossible to stop all bagel theft, but they will make the best padlocks that they can.
Continued at:
http://jimonwebgames.com/articles/2007/02/08/fairbagels
Jobs isn’t messing with the major labels. He just wants Apple to look like the good guys, to avoid the bad press of the possible lawsuits in the EU over iTunes selling DRM material.
Not all the labels selling stuff on iTunes insist that tracks be DRMed, yet Apple does it anyways so that it will only play (without tampering) on iPods. Just ask Terry McBride of Nettwerk Records, whose tracks are available non-DRMed at emusic.com.
While it would be nice if the service providers offered up a productized version of FairUse4WM/QT to strip off the DRM on tracks you’ve already purchased, why would they?
The record stores didn’t give me CD of tapes I had bought, and iTunes certainly didn’t give me tracks for CDs I had bought – granted they didn’t need to, but why would this time be any different?
This actually gives Apple the opportunity to sell you all the same tracks a second time!
Jason, I agree with your premise. Traditionally the music industry has made money by forcing consumers to either upgrade to newer formats, or upgrade to a higher quality release (eg, the never ending cycle of remastered recordings).
However, I happen to be one of those people who thinks that DRM encoded songs qualify as defective merchandise. If the labels do decide to drop DRM and Apple starts selling DRM-free music through iTunes then their customers would arguably be entitled to have their defective music replaced with defect-free music.
Now, you might argue that consumers knowingly purchased these defective songs. And I would counter that the average consumer has little or no knowledge of DRM. iTunes and other online music stores have done almost nothing to explain the limitations of DRM encoded music to consumers. iTunes disclosure of DRM limitations is woefully inadequate. As a result, the average iTunes customer has no clue what they’re really buying.