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- Big Lots, Wal-Mart and Costco: 3 Musketeers of the Pooring of America [view article]
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- Big Lots, Wal-Mart and Costco: 3 Musketeers of the Pooring of America
- Retailers: Avoid This Sector, Then Look for Bargains
- Starbucks Tells Walmart:: "Here, You Take Them."
- Options Trader: Tuesday Outlook
- How Are the Dow Components Doing This Year?
- New Lows For the Dow
- Jason Busch on Wal-Mart's Sustainability: (Still) Missing the Point
- Earnings Volatility for the Dow 30
- In Tech We Trust - Fast Money Recap (6/20/08)
- Wal-Mart Keeps Growing Globally
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Wal-Mart Needs More Than DRM-Free Music to Compete With Apple [view article]
You title reprised my own thoughts on this perfectly. Wal-Mart's actions will only serve to lock in a segment of their customers who would never have considered anything but the absolute-dirt-cheapest products in the first place. These customers were never threatened by Apple's rising market share in music sales.It remains to be seen if DRM-free content will be a significant factor in attracting customers, either to Wal-Mart, EMI, or Apple's own higher-priced, higher-quality DRM-free content. My guess is that DRM, unless correlated with larger pricing changes (like 30%-50% differences), will play a minor role in attracting customers (although personally I wish it were otherwise). Reply
Wal-Mart Needs More Than DRM-Free Music to Compete With Apple [view article]
I totally agree. Anything nowadays that contains any kind of complex Microsoft DRM has to be avoided.Why? Because Microsoft can't even (be bothered?) make its own DRM play on its own player, the Zune. Not that the handful of Zunes that haven't yet been thrown into the river matter a great deal.
It is however symptomatic of Microsoft's struggle with itself over its DRM mess, which is sure to lead to disaster. Reply
Trent
What the Big Boys of American Industry Are Saying [view article]
Glad you find it useful. ReplyWhat the Big Boys of American Industry Are Saying [view article]
Very good points made here that many are overlooking except the real traders who read the reports. Nice to see someone finally looking at them. Thanks----tina C. ReplyUniversal Music Group Readies DRM-Free Music, Sans iTunes [view article]
I think your argument is illogical: Universal is punishing Apple by not giving them DRM-free downloads for the crime of Apple not sharing their DRM system? Doesn't make sense to me. Maybe UMG just wants to test market their s**t in smaller markets before completing its negotiations with the Big Dog, Apple.With regards to Fairplay: Jobs said opening it up could make it easier to hack. I don't know if that's true, or if that reflects his honest opinion, but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt.
"Under today's environment 80% of the music stored on all iPods is of the unprotected mp3 variety and I believe it is a fair guess that most of that is pirated."
Disagree. I have a mostly full 4 Gig Nano and there is nothing illegal on it, period. There's LOTS of free musical and spoken word content out there. Reply
Universal Music Group Readies DRM-Free Music, Sans iTunes [view article]
I hear your point about Apple's right to keep its license to itself. After all, I'm a free market libertarian. But it doesn't make long term business sense. More digital music stores capable of selling into the iPod ecosystem would mean more iPods sold. And after all, Apple makes money on the sale of hardware, not the iTunes store. What we have now is near total chaos, unless you are simply a cult-like lover of Apple who would never consider owning a device manufactured by anyone else. What if, in the 1970s, RCA 8-tracks would only play on RCA 8-track players and Motown 8-tracks only played on Motown players? There needs to be a content standard. We're not talking about games here, which are primarily played by a cult-like following of mostly adolescents, were talking about music that virtually everyone listens to. Even if the big labels go out of business the independent labels and/or the artists themselves are going to want to be paid for the IP and I suspect they are going to want a form of DRM. Again, IMO, it is simply wishful and naive thinking to believe DRM will totally go away. There should be a single interoperable hardware-agnostic DRM, and if Apple, who currently owns the "standard" by default, is not willing to license its DRM so it truly becomes the standard then the record labels should do what UMG appears to be doing and cut Apple out until it is forced to play ball. If Apple doesn't play then they should release their content on one DRM only and force Apple to license it. If that happens I suspect the DRM will be PlaysForSure of Microsoft's new DRM, PlayReady. I just don't think DRM is really going away. Lastly, even you admit you don't think this experiment is going to result in much. Well, if iPod owners continue to purchase UMG music via the iTunes store with DRM embedded rather than go to Rhapsody to purchase the same music without DRM I think that's a pretty good indication DRM is not as reviled as many suggest. And I think this is part of the experiment UMG is conducting. Of course, if UMG were to embrace iTunes Plus they would see a big uptick in digital music sales. UMG knows this. That's not the point of the "exercise." I must say that the way you wax so elequently about the seemles and flawless interopeation of the iTunes music store and the iPod one has to question your independence. Anyone who is truly consumer focused would want the most options possible for the consumer. So why not have a single standard for all content so all hardware manufacturers could compete head to head and give us the best product a competitive market is capable of delivering? Yeah, yeah, yeah DRM-free mp3 is single standard but it does not adequately protect the IP. ReplyLiss, SA
Editor
Universal Music Group Readies DRM-Free Music, Sans iTunes [view article]
Thomas,Web browser Firefox 2.0 or higher (Mozilla) gives you an across-the-board spell check feature.
Best,
Jonathan Liss
Seeking Alpha Reply
Universal Music Group Readies DRM-Free Music, Sans iTunes [view article]
I had another quick point to add briefly but I didn't want to make the above comment too too long.I don't think companies should be forced to license anything. You've made a great successful product, and consumers have embraced it. That's the end of that.
Would you also deman that Microsoft for example licensed the Halo games so they can play on PS2 or PS3. No! Because that would completely cannibalize sales of XBox so why would the company do that.
The simple fact of licensing is that it only makes sense to do it if it makes strategic sense for the company.
The way iTunes and iPod work so seemlessly together is one of the main selling points for a lot of consumers so why would Apple want to knock the fence down? Reply
Universal Music Group Readies DRM-Free Music, Sans iTunes [view article]
While you have valid points about Apple licensing their DRM software, I don't think it'll ever happen. The simple solution of DRM free is best, so why would licensing DRM be better?I don't think it's a fair guess that most of the music on iPods is pirated. First off, the biggest capacity iPods also store a lot of video for a lot of people and secondly, I think a majotiry of iPod users used iTunes to digitize their entire CD collections. Another point of contention in the entertainment business model is making consumers pay several times for the same entertainment. It happens in music, movies, tv, almost every form of entertainment. Vinyl, tapes, then cds, now mp3s. In films, theatres, pay per view, and you had VHS, then DVD and now blu-ray or HD-DVD.
When people throw around numbers like 100 million ipods sold and 3 billion songs so only about 30 songs per iPod so the rest of the space must be pirated, they always fail to mention how many people have vast CD libraries that they've burned to MP3 format to put on their iPods. So I feel like that point of piracy is not a strong one without and concrete study facts. Yes there is piracy in the digital world, you have to face that, but at the same time, making a consumer buy the same song or album from the same artists just cause its in a different format is an entirely different form of piracy.
I think this Universal DRM-free test will not fare well simply because those other stores do very little business, so to expect a massive uptick when most digital music consumers are already familiar with iTunes is very optimistic. I think if Universal were to embrace iTunes Plus they would see a much much higher increase in interest in their online music offerings.
Each side has had their faults in negotiations but it seems like Apple fights for the consumer (and of course their bottom line) and Universal fights simply for the bottom line. The way the music industry treats not only consumers but also artists I can't help but feel that them being well behind the curve in digital music is for the better in the long run. The trend of indie labels and bigger bands moving to indie labels has slowly started with this digital revolution and I think you'll see more of it as digital music becomes more and more of a social experience over the internet. Bands won't need massive major label marketing budgets, because word of mouth is your biggest selling point. Now if only the Payola would stop so some of these truly great musical acts can get their songs played on the radio once in a while we'd be living in a beautiful world, musically.
--
Chris Krasowski
wcpowertechfund.blogsp... Reply
Universal Music Group Readies DRM-Free Music, Sans iTunes [view article]
Dear Seeking Alpha,Please put a spell checker in the comment boxes.
(Thanx) Reply
Universal Music Group Readies DRM-Free Music, Sans iTunes [view article]
I have to take exeption with your contention the record labels need Apple more than Apple needs them. Apple has bullied the music industry by not licensing its DRM (called FairPlay) to other music retailers, and only FairPlay-encoded music will play on iPods. This is the main point of contention, in my opinion. If Apple would license its DRM to other music stores like Rhapsody, Napster, Yahoo Music, etc. UMG would be back at the bargaining table. Although DRM-free digital music is clearly more valuable to the consumer I believe consumers would consider interoperable DRM-agnostic music almost as valuable as totally DRM-free music. And why shouldn't Apple license its DRM anyway? It only stands to reason that more people would purchase iPods if iPods were capable of playing legal music purchased from sites other than just the iTunes music store. Under today's environment 80% of the music stored on all iPods is of the unprotected mp3 variety and I believe it is a fair guess that most of that is pirated. It will be an interesting test case, indeed, if we see that people continue to purchase UMG DRM-encoded music from the iTunes site rather than DRM-free UMG music from other sites. That would provide evidence consumers' issues are not so much with DRM in and of itself, but rather with the music's ability to operate with their chosen hardware. Such a result could enbolden the record labels to play even harder with Apple to license its DRM to other music stores. The record labels have been behind the curve since the digital music genie slipped out of the bottle, but I cannot have any sympathy for Apple either. Apple should open up the FairPlay license to all legitimate digital music stores. Alternatively, the record companies should band together and force a single interoperable DRM standard upon all retailers of their digital product. I think it is naive to expect a totally DRM-free world. ReplyUniversal Music Group Readies DRM-Free Music, Sans iTunes [view article]
These big labels should be informed that suicidal actions tend not to reward shareholders very well. Apple does not really need ANY of these labels to sell iPods; there is plenty of great free content on the web. The labels, on the other hand, need digital distribution, with CD sales slumping. ReplyJuly Same-Store Sales Roundup [view article]
This is an outstandingly helpful table -- thanks! ReplyWal-Mart Aims To Be More Fashionable [view article]
paul,i think they are a far way from being a destination for clothing. but, if they just rise to acceptable, with all their locations we are talking about major dollars.. Reply
Guy
Wal-Mart Investors Jumping the Gun [view article]
Doesn't look like things are going well on the apparel front:<blockquote>
<b>Wal-Mart shakes up executive ranks</b>
Wal-Mart Stores has announced the resignation its apparel chief, Claire Watts, after the company failed to increase clothing sales.
A company spokeswoman, Sarah Clark, on Friday, declined to say why Watts had resigned. A person answering the phone at Watts's office said she was unavailable for comment.
Watts's departure comes after Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, retreated from attempts to lure shoppers with more fashionable clothing, including its Metro 7 line of dresses.
Same-store sales at U.S. stores last year increased at their slowest pace since at least 1980...
</blockquote>
Source:
iht.com/articles/2007/... Reply