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To the labels, DRM is not really about piracy.
It's about control.
Record company losses to "piracy" are minuscule compared to the death of their long term business prospects if they can't charge for the same content over and over and over ad nauseum in perpetuity forever.
That's why they feared the mp3 players and why secretly they loathe the iPod (although they want a piece of its 'action').
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I don't know why some of you dislike CDs so much. I got a 25 buck iTunes card for Christmas and downloaded two albums, which I then backed up to CD and downloaded the cover art for the CD cases.I'm not going to leave anything I paid for in electronic form only, no matter how many hard drives it's backed up on.
But I'm paranoid. If I could play CDs on one of thoise antique crank Victrolas i'd have one around just in case the electricity goes out.
Also I like to have things i can hold in my hand. Like old record albums. For those of us of a certain age, music is a tactile and visual experience as well as an auditory one.
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[quote blooz]I don't know why some of you dislike CDs so much.
Where did you get that idea?
Not from this thread.
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[quote Seacrest]To the labels, DRM is not really about piracy.
It's about control.
Record company losses to "piracy" are minuscule compared to the death of their long term business prospects if they can't charge for the same content over and over and over ad nauseum in perpetuity forever.
That's why they feared the mp3 players and why secretly they loathe the iPod (although they want a piece of its 'action').
I've often said the same thing, but that's always an important thing to emphasize. If downloading or some other format ever becomes more popular than CDs, as consumers we're sunk.
They took this to an (illogical) end with SACD --- here was a format promising high resolution, but you aren't allowed to manufacture a player with a digital output. Audiophiles --- the target audience --- wouldn't want to be locked into just the analog outputs. Not because they wanted to make identical copies (and who would be ripping disks up to 4.7GB back in the mid 1990s?) , but because they didn't want to be locked into whatever D/A converter is in the box.
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"Today's most popular iPod holds 1000 songs, and research tells us that the average iPod is nearly full. This means that only 22 out of 1000 songs, or under 3% of the music on the average iPod, is purchased from the iTunes store and protected with a DRM. The remaining 97% of the music is unprotected and playable on any player that can play the open formats. Its hard to believe that just 3% of the music on the average iPod is enough to lock users into buying only iPods in the future. And since 97% of the music on the average iPod was not purchased from the iTunes store, iPod users are clearly not locked into the iTunes store to acquire their music."
LOL! Talk about a sleight-of-hand statement from the master himself! The question is, what is the size of today's average iPod? You cannot easily equate most popular with what's average. We're talking about, what, four generations of iPods now?
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DRM music may make up only 3% of the average iPod, but how much of the 97% is actually legally purchased? Sure, you elders are all legal, but the number one consumer of iPods is college kids. You think they buy their own music? I'll be honest, I bought very little music until this year (aside from the iTMS). I got to feeling guilty about it and started buying up cd's on eBay to replace my illegally obtained music. I've also gotten into purchasing new releases on Tuesdays at BB for the same price as the iTMS.
If the DRM is removed, the little bit of money being made from the majority of iPod users will be gone.
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LOL! Talk about a sleight-of-hand statement from the master himself!
How so?
I think he's referring to the nano. What are the sales figures for today's most popular iPods?
And I bet that if a survey were taking of 30/60/80G 'Pods, or over four generations of 'Pods, the same would be true-- that there is far more non-iTS music on them than that purchased from the iTS.
I think there's far less slight of hand than you imply.
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[quote IronMac]"Today's most popular iPod ... "
... The question is, what is the size of today's average iPod? You cannot easily equate most popular with what's average. We're talking about, what, four generations of iPods now?
Jobs' point was in regard to the real-world impact the iPod has by referencing the most popular model --- one that happens to be relatively small capacity. It would have been more dramatic, but less accurate, to do what YOU suggest.
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[quote RAMd®d]I think he's referring to the nano. What are the sales figures for today's most popular iPods?
And I bet that if a survey were taking of 30/60/80G 'Pods, or over four generations of 'Pods, the same would be true-- that there is far more non-iTS music on them than that purchased from the iTS.
I think there's far less slight of hand than you imply.
I don't think that you can tell what he is referring to.
As for non-iTS music on them, I'm pretty sure that that number outweighs the number of songs purchased legally online. Where Jobs is blowing smoke is his belief that the majority of songs comes from CDs sold by the labels. He doesn't mention anything about illegal filesharing.
