BrianAndPamela.com

Link to Apple - Thoughts on Music

I made a bold statement back in October that the only people that are inconvenienced are legitimate customers.  That people who are serious about stealing music are going to do it anyway.  I'm not by any means the only one saying it.  Bloggers have been saying it.  DefectiveByDesign has been saying it.  The EFF says it. Bill Gates said it.

Now one of the biggest names in Digital Music is saying the same .  Arguably THE biggest name in digital media distribution, Steve Jobs of Apple, Inc. released what amounts to a blog post today in which he says exactly that.

Why would the big four music companies agree to let Apple and others distribute their music without using DRM systems to protect it? The simplest answer is because DRMs haven’t worked, and may never work, to halt music piracy. Though the big four music companies require that all their music sold online be protected with DRMs, these same music companies continue to sell billions of CDs a year which contain completely unprotected music. That’s right! No DRM system was ever developed for the CD, so all the music distributed on CDs can be easily uploaded to the Internet, then (illegally) downloaded and played on any computer or player.

As missives from CEOs go, it's pretty strong.  He places the blame for DRM and the goofy systems squarely on Big Content.  Interestingly, he doesn't allow the record companies to hide behind the obscuring mantle of the "RIAA", but instead calls them by name: Sony BMG, Vevendi Universal, EMI and Warner Music.  Remember, these are his supposed business partners and he essentially calls them idiots for requiring restrictive DRM on every iTunes and Zune track but continuing to sell more than 90% of their music unprotected on DRMless CDs. 

Quoth Steve:

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. If such requirements were removed, the music industry might experience an influx of new companies willing to invest in innovative new stores and players. This can only be seen as a positive by the music companies.

Now, I can't read the entire article with a straight face.  He also claims that:

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.

Which is directly contrary to reported quotes from Apple execs.  Apple benefits from the single source hold it has on the iTunes/iPod market, and I think it's probably just the reality distortion field at work around his royal turtleneck-ed-ness.  I'm pretty sure he hopes he never has to put up or shut-up on that one, but hey, I'm willing to hold him to it.

So did Jobs just wake up this morning and decide that DRM was bad (m'kay)?  Not hardly.  And it's unlikely that he's a frequent reader of brianandpamela.com (though if you're reading this, Steve, I'd happily trade my Alienware laptop and a really good review for a 17" MacBook Pro…).  Steve's post was aimed directly at countries in Europe like France and Norway which have begun to view iTunes and the iPod as anti-competitive because of the stranglehold they have on the digital music world.

Steve again:

Much of the concern over DRM systems has arisen in European countries.  Perhaps those unhappy with the current situation should redirect their energies towards persuading the music companies to sell their music DRM-free.  For Europeans, two and a half of the big four music companies are located right in their backyard.  The largest, Universal, is 100% owned by Vivendi, a French company.  EMI is a British company, and Sony BMG is 50% owned by Bertelsmann, a German company.  Convincing them to license their music to Apple and others DRM-free will create a truly interoperable music marketplace.  Apple will embrace this wholeheartedly.

I'm pretty sure Big Content isn't done kicking and screaming about how we're all a bunch of thankless pirates yet, but if anyone has the leverage to push back at them, it's Jobs.  Get 'em, Tiger!  (Or should that be Leopard?)