January 27, 2004
Forget the Online Music Stores
Peter Rojas over at Gizmodo rightly points out that most music stores today are more trouble than they're worth:
"...to be perfectly honest, [we are] feeling more and more convinced that the best move would be to simply stay away from online music stores (and their restrictions) altogether and just stick to MP3."
That's exactly why I've yet to sign up for iTunes or Real's music store or (god forbid) Wal-Mart's music download service. I don't want to reward the corporations who produce these consumer-unfriendly content protection schemes. Convenience and/or hassle factors aside, I personally don't believe the state of things today is a viable, satisfying situation.
Do I have an alternative? Sadly, I'll admit that I don't, but that certainly does not mean there isn't one waiting to be invented. Was Napster (the first version, not today's bastardization of the same name) better? In some ways, but I don't think it did enough to bring rewards back to the artists who produced the music.
Ideally, we'd have a system that permits both peer-to-peer and direct-from-distributor content sharing while simultaneously rewarding the artists and producers of the content based on the value they produce for the consumers. If/when such a system turns up, we'll all know it, since it will immediately reveal all these intermediary services to be the transient evolutionary mis-steps they are. In the meantime, I'll continue to buy CDs (at least I own those) and rip them to MP3 so I can listen to my music the way I want to, when I want to, and on what device I want to. After all, isn't that the way it should be?
Update: Of course, the geniuses at Forrester disagree.
Posted by Craig | Permalink | TrackBackHave a look at Magnatune.com. Unless it's classical music, you're probably not likely to find any mainstream artist at the moment, but what they do carry is high quality. You may just find something you like.
1) Listen music (streamed) as much as you like. No "clips".
2) If you purchase, you pretty much pick the price.
3) When you pay, Magnatunes takes their cut, the artist gets the rest.
4) When you buy, you can decide the format you want, including full WAV files. No DRM mp3/acc, etc.
5) As they say, "We're not Evil".
I've found several classical and electronica selections which I was quite happy to pay for. I also have yet to buy from any other "online" store. I don't like DRM, and I don't like paying all the middle men in the process.
Posted by Bryan Nystrom at January 27, 2004 02:02 PMCool, Bryan, thanks -- I'll give it a look-see.
Posted by Craig at January 27, 2004 04:00 PMI don't think the copyright protection scheme used by Apple in it's online iTunes music store is burdensome at all.
I purchase the music with one click, it downloads automatically, and plays on my iPod, iMac fine. I can burn as many cds of it as I want.
Quality is just as good as my 192kbps mp3s.
In the stealing mentality world we live in today, it's all about compromise. Sure I can't steam my ACC protected songs to my office, but at least I know the music I do buy is legitimate.
Posted by Jake at January 27, 2004 09:01 PMJake,
To you, it may not be burdensome, but it is significantly more restrictive than when you purchase a CD full of music.
You can re-sell a CD, but you cannot re-sell an iTunes track.
You can auction a CD, but you cannot auction an iTunes track.
You can loan a CD, but you cannot loan an iTunes track.
This story [http://news.com.com/2100-1025_3-5071108.html?tag=fd_top] highlights some of the problems and limitations. And, to be honest, are these fair limitations? Why must my payment for content be for forever -- why shouldn't I be able to recoup my investment in the future if someone wants to buy the content from me? My enjoyment of the content certainly isn't for forever, so why should my investment be? This practice of not permitting reselling would only serve to inflate prices (due to artificial scarcity, like the California energy shortage of 2001), which then motivates consumers to behave unethically.
In the end, if you have a _just_ system, all who participate are rewarded appropriately.
Posted by Craig at January 27, 2004 09:16 PMI see your point.
If these items you mentioned are things you normally do with your music, then yes, the fairplay technology implementation would be a reduction in features for you.
As I don't do these things too often (resell, loan, auction), I guess I didn't run across these limitations.
Posted by Jake at January 28, 2004 07:10 AMCraig: Though I have not read all the legal restrictions on the Apple AAC files, they are a bit less cumbersome than you assert. Once you buy the file/album from the IMS it resides on your hard disk in AAC format saddled with Apple's DRM. However, if you tell it to burn a CD of the playlist you've built from that album's songs, it does just that. The one's I burn do just fine in all CD players I have access to and they sound as good (to my ears) as a store bought disc. Whether or not you can sell this CD then delete the AAC files and call it legal, I have no idea.
Until reading your response above, I have never thought of CDs as an "investment"; more like a commodity to me. But if you are actively trading in CDs, I can see your point.
Posted by Mitch at January 28, 2004 08:46 PMSort of token but... I tried out iTunes as part of some research I'm doing and: did you realize that you can buy an album, burn that album to CD, then rip that CD and have perfectly fine MP3 files? Made me wonder about the whole DRM thing in iTunes... why bother?
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