On Thoughts on Music
Submitted by Ross Kendall on Tue, 20/02/2007 - 11:48am.
This is my brief response to Steve Jobs' (of Apple) Thoughts on Music.
Dear Steve,
You say that the “big four” music companies control the distribution of over 70% of the world’s music, and that the reason iTunes uses DRM is because they force you too.
If you really do support the sale of DRM-free music, please support it in deed as well as in word. There is the remaining 30% of the world's music that could potentially be sold DRM-free - emusic.com manages to find plenty.
Please start selling some music DRM-free.
In the mean time, I will continue to show my support by only purchasing DRM-free music (yes, I have an iPod, and NO iTunes music).
Thanks,
Ross
Ditto
I agree -- Apple could easily sell indie music without DRM, as eMusic currently does. I buy from iTunes, but with some trepidation. What if, someday down the line, I want to "break out" of the iTunes "ecosystem"? As some have said, the current DRM is a "tax" on doing so.
Shelly Palmer also posted a good over-view of the issues surround Steve's essay.
- Matthew
Other's comments
There is definitely no shortage of people responding to and commenting on Steve Jobs' article. Even though I made my post quite late, I did it before reading anyone else's comments, but was then surprised that a large number of people had come to exactly the same conclusion as me.
One post I particularly enjoyed was from the 'Fake Steve' blog (quite a funny site)
Thoughts on "Thoughts on Music"
Cheers,
Ross.