brando

MySpace Aims to Be the Jukebox of Our Internet Existence

All these "free" music sites are crap IMO. The user experience sucks. When are people going to realize you get what you pay for? Music is in demand, therefore it has value. The paid subscription sites like Rhapsody and Napster where you get all the music all the time without the BS blow away the competition.

Rhapsody's New e-Music Download Service Takes on iTunes

You obviously don't know much about music, and even less about the music business. Nobody is trying to out-iPod Apple...not Rhapsody, not Napster, not Amazon. These music stores are vying for slices of what is hoped will be a larger overall legal music pie (the real problem is piracy and why the law is not shutting it down -- but I digress). iTunes sales are plateauing as people realize Apple's content is locked by its proprietary DRM into Apple devices. Secondly, you sound like what the technology community refers to as a "fanboy", i.e. neither logic nor reason can infect your love of anything Apple. Lastly, subscription music is not "a really bad idea." I and thousands of others who subscribe to Napster's and Rhapsody's subscription product think it's a really good idea and love the value proposition. What people need to understand is that subscription music isn't necessarily a replacement for owning a collection of music (although I choose to use it in that manner). It drives my home stereo system, my son's stereo in his room, and another system we have by the pool. It also fills and re-fills 3 different mp3 players that my family shares, one of which happens to be my cell phone that also can purchase tracks over the air via ATT. All this for $15 per month. It's the best entertainment value proposition I know. I tried Rhapsody and it's fine, but I like Napster better. They have over 6 million songs and you can purchase them DRM-free if you like.

Napster's DRM-Free Music Store Will Struggle

I've been a Napster subscriber for over three years and love it. Subscription music is the only way to go as far as I'm concerned. Piracy is not an option and iTunes is not nearly as user friendly as having over 6mm songs available on command. Now I can start a library of DRM-free high bitrate files that I own...but frankly, I don't care. Once you try the subscription route you probably won't want to purchase. Napster's challenge is getting people to try it and realize the potential.

The Music Biz: Something Important Is On The Horizon

There is one huge horsefly in the soup: illegal peer to peer file stealing. Why aren't you writing about how this has to be stopped? It's the first and foremost thing necessary to move the digital music space into an environment capable of supporting profitability. All the new so called "business models" cropping up are going to end up burning more VC money than the online bakeries and shoe shine shops funded at the turn of the century. Copyright law must be enforced. We are on a slippery slope that could lead to a long and painful decline of creativity and business application of all things digitally filable. Fans don't steal, thus record labels are not suing fans, just common thieves.

Universal Music Group Readies DRM-Free Music, Sans iTunes

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.

Universal Music Group Readies DRM-Free Music, Sans iTunes

Dear Seeking Alpha,

Please put a spell checker in the comment boxes.

(Thanx)

Universal Music Group Readies DRM-Free Music, Sans iTunes

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.