Comments on: iTunes Store To Remove DRM, Futz Around With Pricing: Do You Care?

By: best remove drm

best remove drm — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 02:44:05 +0000

I’m not care.I think this is nice

By: drm removal

drm removal — Wed, 19 May 2010 03:27:47 +0000

it is a good news for me

By: Chris Molanphy

Chris Molanphy — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 07:00:10 +0000

@revmatty: Exactly. This is what's gotten lost in a lot of the coverage. That and the fact that Steve Jobs went from Record Industry Savior in 2003 to Record Industry Pariah in 2004-05 in record time.

By: revmatty

revmatty — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 05:42:46 +0000

To be fair to Apple, it was the labels who refused to give up the DRM after Apple decided they were willing to let it go (which still took them too long).

By: DeeW

DeeW — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 10:20:32 +0000

I think this is fan-freaking-tastic, but I also have to say that Apple is moving too slow. They just got around to removing DRM (whereas Napster, Amazon MP3, Zune Marketplace and Rhapsody removed the restrictions long ago - and many of them alrady have variable pricing, too). Then again, when you're King, you don't have to really do anything.

Don't get me wrong, it's pretty kickass that they removed the restrictions, but by now I tend to get much of my music from Lala.com - variable pricing on par with what Apple will be offering, I can listen to my entire home collection at work (or any other computer with an internet connection), sample songs in their entirety before I buy them, and buy them without DRM. And, apparently they're coming up with an iPhone app soon.

Great to see the death bell for music DRM, though.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 10:04:39 +0000

DRM can be a major pain if you move between countries. I’ve had to open iTunes accounts in Canada and the UK and trying to remember passwords and logins far after the fact is frustrating.

By: revmatty

revmatty — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 07:55:21 +0000

I have an iTunes library that I have used from 6 different computers, several of which have had the OS wiped and reinstalled in the last year. I’ve never had to authorize any of the one machine I used to create the library in the first place.

By: Captain Wrong

Captain Wrong — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 06:52:18 +0000

Those Amazon loss leaders have gotten more of my coin that I’d care to admit. If this variable price thing doesn’t continue to bring prices down, the lack of DRM is irrelevant for me because I’m not buying music there anyway. Also, I’m more interested in bit rates going up than DRM going away.

By: Mick Kraut

Mick Kraut — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 06:19:35 +0000

@Hamm Beerger: Correct.

I wipe my hard drive every 4-6 months since I always pick up some malware nastiness in my travels and have never had an issue with the DRM. While it says once per year, I was able to do it twice in 2008...

By: Chris Molanphy

Chris Molanphy — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 06:17:20 +0000

So CNet's Greg Sandoval has a decent summary article up, that acknowledges the give-and-take between DRM and song pricing.

("...the celebration over their appearance at the country's largest music retailer may be overshadowed by increased prices on some hit songs, which might be seen by some as an Apple surrender on pricing. Apple fans have long applauded the company for holding the line on pricing despite loud complaints from the major music labels.")

Which is good reporting on Sandoval's part, but I remain dumbfounded that his November "letter to Steve Jobs" didn't acknowledge this inevitable quid pro quo. Six weeks ago he made it sound like all the intransigent Apple/Jobs had to do was be nice and let the labels "negotiate" with him. Well, they negotiated, and the consumer is gaining something and losing something (arguably, something more important to them than the gain in DRM; who do we think buys the hit songs the labels want to price higher -- wealthy 47-year-olds?). Would it have been so hard for Sandoval to suggest this back then?

Sorry, I know this is inside-baseball, but that earlier piece by him still ticks me off. It was half the story, at best. Finally we have the other half.