The Beach Boys. The Beastie Boys. Blur. David Bowie. Kate Bush. And that’s just some of the ‘B’s.
All of them signed to EMI, or EMI-owned labels, and all likely to have their music appear on the iTunes Store in DRM-free format within a couple of months.
Here’s Steve and Eric looking pleased with themselves. And why shouldn’t they? Steve’s happy because he’s finally got someone from one of the big record labels to understand his basic point about DRM: it doesn’t work. He said it clearly in this Thoughts on Music:
To achieve this, a DRM system employs secrets … The problem, of course, is that there are many smart people in the world, some with a lot of time on their hands, who love to discover such secrets and publish a way for everyone to get free (and stolen) music. They are often successful in doing just that, so any company trying to protect content using a DRM must frequently update it with new and harder to discover secrets. It is a cat-and-mouse game.
It’s broken, and people hate it. Now that Eric Nocoli sees that too, Steve’s suddenly got 25 per cent of the music industry on his side. The smile on Steve’s face is the smile of a man who’s already won. And he’s not even out of his seat.
Eric’s smile is the smile of a man who’s got one-up on his rivals. He knows how conservative, how luddite, his industry has acted ever since it got the Napster kicked out of it back in the 1990s. He knows, like all retailers, that the customer is always right, and that today’s music buyers want to be able to do whatever the hell they like with their music. He knows this is going to come around for everyone sooner or later - but that his company is going to get there first.
Of course there will be people who will try to pirate their DRM-free music all over the web. We don’t know yet if the DRM-free files will also be metadata-free (my hunch is they won’t be), so it’s open to speculation what effect piracy will have. Not much. There will be isolated cases, perhaps causing brief surges of media interest, but the vast majority of people will do what they have always done - buy their music legally, because they want a good quality copy of it, which they can listen to on any machine they happen to own.
I’m smiling too. It’s been a long time since I realized the folly of filling my house with plastic disks, when all I really wanted to own was the music. But it’s also been a long time since the iTunes Store opened for business, and aside from one or two purchases made in the interest of reviewing software, I’ve not bought anything from it.
When the EMI catalogue goes on sale without DRM, I plan to go shopping. I’ll start with some of those ‘B’s.
Right on the money! Plus the announced boost in recording quality for DRM free tracks will be the last nail in the coffin of the CD.
> "he's finally got someone from one of the big record labels to understand his basic point about DRM: it doesn't work."
His basic point about DRM for music. He hasn't yet said he feels the same about video, nor software, for that matter.
At first glance, I thought the chap on the right was another B - Barmy Ballmer! Perhaps a late April Fool Photoshopped image? :-)
As far as nailing CD's coffin closed is concerned - forget it! I have somewhere in the region of 800 CDs and I'm damn sure I won't give all that up for intangible, digital purchases. Yes they're almost all ripped. No, storage isn't particularly convenient. But I wouldn't have it any other way.
I've not been much of an itms customer because I don't care much for pop/rock music, and I wouldn't spend money on an mp3 of the few classical or jazz records they have. But if the EMI deal includes their classical catalog with high quality downloads I may give it a try. Getting your hands on classics and jazz has always been a chore unless you had a Tower or Borders in town. Now that Tower is gone and Borders has gone all chicken droppings over cds -- look in a Borders music dept. now and you'd swear they were going out of business -- it might be worth it. We'll see.
I thought exactly the same as Gary. Eric Nocoli looks alarmingly like Ballmer. :-)
"It's been a long time since I realized the folly of filling my house with plastic disks, when all I really wanted to own was the music."
I'm still irretrievably sunk in folly, since I like having a CD as the ultimate back-up, and I like having the sleeve notes. But I suppose not everyone wants sleeve notes, and a back-up of one's iTunes library on an external hard disk is probably good enough, so not everyone needs be as foolish as me.
"But if the EMI deal includes their classical catalog with high quality downloads I may give it a try."
Some articles have already mentioned EMI's renowned back catalogue of classical music as a possible draw for EMI in download form - specially as people who like classical music are thought to be more likely to avoid low-bitrate downloads. On reflection, I'm not sure how much it appeals to me. I'll definitely have a look, but I think stuff from the back catalogue is generally pretty cheap on CD--and you get the sleeve notes. Oops, my folly is kicking in again.
@Michael
"But I suppose not everyone wants sleeve notes, and a back-up of one's iTunes library on an external hard disk is probably good enough, so not everyone needs be as foolish as me."
We're not foolish. Old-fashioned, maybe, but there's nothing wrong with that. :-)