Tuesday, April 03, 2007
Apple DRM Follow-Up
Well, well. It has been an interesting couple of weeks since I last wrote. It seems that EMI and Apple have agreed that maybe DRM-free music is a good idea, after all. Some think that this places labels in direct competition with free (and illegitimate) music downloads. I'm not sure that's completely true. I'm not sure people will want to pay a premium for DRM-free content (especially those who have bought completely into the iTunes digital supply chain, which would include me). However, I think it strikes a compelling note by focusing on high quality, DRM-free, ultra-portable music.
Let's think about the demographic the marketing is focusing on:
1. Ultra-portable. Allowing the tracks to be played on a wide variety of devices is a great move. It really shows some faith in the digital music consumer, which I think the industry needs to start doing. For Apple's part, in addition to "walking the talk" that they made last month (see my previous post), they are showing some interest in making sure the labels' tracks can reach every nook and cranny of the consumer's investment in digital media products. Verizon Wireless, take note. As a devout Mac user, I am incredibly disappointed that I can't play any of my iTMS tracks (or even transfer tracks that my phone _could_ play) to a modern media phone. More on that later, perhaps. All that being said, though, this is just one leg of the proverbial stool. This puts iTMS on par with "free" downloads (plus the per-track charge).
2. Easily found. I heard from a friend-of-a-friend that it can be difficult just to find tracks you're looking for on these free download services. If you do think you found something, you just end up relying on a high number of other "sharers" being online at the same time. Also, user-labeled content is notoriously badly organized. Maybe there is a trick to finding things like replacing 'S' with 'Z' everywhere, but you certainly aren't guaranteed a good experience when using these networks.
3. High-quality. The tracks offered by this iTMS/EMI deal will have twice the sample rate of the standard FairPlay(tm) tracks. Even if you can get the track to your computer in finite time, the quality of these tracks varies widely. And I'm not just talking about the sample rate of the tracks, which can get a bit insane on these networks (so I'm told). There is really something to be said about production quality (Apple understands this well). Tracks that are consistently produced, with accurate fades, cuts, and volume levels are much more valuable... especiall to the audiophiles that are clearly being targeted with this offering. I'm a bit of an audiophile myself, but I can't tell the difference between 128kbps and 392kbps once my signal gets munged by my RF modulator (the best way I've found under $500 to connect my iPod to my car... and my wife's).
A guarantee that the track will be easily found, high-quality, and portable to any audio device (including in-dash players that would remove RF from my personal enjoyment of digital tracks) is worth a buck to anyone making more than minimum wage. That's just economics! I think it's a great move, and I hope the experiment pays off for these two companies. I don't think this deal will stop sharing of digital media through less-than-legitimate means, but I think this is a valuable service. My fondest hope is that it will open up digital media to a broader base of influencers and will prove that DRM isn't needed to have a feasible digital distribution model.
Let's think about the demographic the marketing is focusing on:
1. Ultra-portable. Allowing the tracks to be played on a wide variety of devices is a great move. It really shows some faith in the digital music consumer, which I think the industry needs to start doing. For Apple's part, in addition to "walking the talk" that they made last month (see my previous post), they are showing some interest in making sure the labels' tracks can reach every nook and cranny of the consumer's investment in digital media products. Verizon Wireless, take note. As a devout Mac user, I am incredibly disappointed that I can't play any of my iTMS tracks (or even transfer tracks that my phone _could_ play) to a modern media phone. More on that later, perhaps. All that being said, though, this is just one leg of the proverbial stool. This puts iTMS on par with "free" downloads (plus the per-track charge).
2. Easily found. I heard from a friend-of-a-friend that it can be difficult just to find tracks you're looking for on these free download services. If you do think you found something, you just end up relying on a high number of other "sharers" being online at the same time. Also, user-labeled content is notoriously badly organized. Maybe there is a trick to finding things like replacing 'S' with 'Z' everywhere, but you certainly aren't guaranteed a good experience when using these networks.
3. High-quality. The tracks offered by this iTMS/EMI deal will have twice the sample rate of the standard FairPlay(tm) tracks. Even if you can get the track to your computer in finite time, the quality of these tracks varies widely. And I'm not just talking about the sample rate of the tracks, which can get a bit insane on these networks (so I'm told). There is really something to be said about production quality (Apple understands this well). Tracks that are consistently produced, with accurate fades, cuts, and volume levels are much more valuable... especiall to the audiophiles that are clearly being targeted with this offering. I'm a bit of an audiophile myself, but I can't tell the difference between 128kbps and 392kbps once my signal gets munged by my RF modulator (the best way I've found under $500 to connect my iPod to my car... and my wife's).
A guarantee that the track will be easily found, high-quality, and portable to any audio device (including in-dash players that would remove RF from my personal enjoyment of digital tracks) is worth a buck to anyone making more than minimum wage. That's just economics! I think it's a great move, and I hope the experiment pays off for these two companies. I don't think this deal will stop sharing of digital media through less-than-legitimate means, but I think this is a valuable service. My fondest hope is that it will open up digital media to a broader base of influencers and will prove that DRM isn't needed to have a feasible digital distribution model.
Labels: apple, drm, free music
