02.06.07
Steve Job’s - Thoughts on Music
Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple, Inc. and never one to back down from a challenge, has written an open letter to the music industry on issues of Digital Rights Management (DRM). While Apple’s current model for distributing music is a DRM solution written in house, known as FairPlay, in the letter, Jobs goes into detail of how this was mostly a solution to ease the minds of worried record labels at the time and ultimately may not be the best solution for the future.
In fact, Job’s goes on to offer several solutions, but one of which is the idea of distributing DRM free music (similar to what is done with iTunes competitors such as Emusic and Amie Street). He explains that only 3% of music in use today is DRM’d music and that the remaining 97% comes from both downloading (illegal and from DRM free resources) and from legal CD purchases that are later ripped to digital music players.
I know many of us out there despise DRM music and a lot of times it is an obstacle that is not worth having to overcome with an HMV just down the block. I personally stopped using iTunes Music Store as soon as I bought a new music player, that was not an ipod, and none of my songs could easily transfer over. Hopefully those behind the recording industry will begin to see the light and soon enough, DRM may be a thing of the past.
