Have They Finally Seen the Light?

In the linked article above, the Washington Post reports that Apple CEO Steve Jobs has issued an open call for music companies to abandon DRM software, and allow music to be licensed and distributed in without anti-piracy controls.

Job's declaration comes as a welcome endorsement to the millions of internet savvy music fiends, who find that their appetite for music and variety vastly outpaces their resources to spend on musical download services who can charge up to $1.50 per song. For music enthusiasts, whose song catalogs can number over 10,000 tracks, the low per song price is a deceptive lure. Other enthusiasts find that their chosen MP3 player is incompatible with whomever is licensing the music. For example, music sold through the Apple Itunes store is not compatible with Sony Walkman MP3 player. However, if one is attracted to the design of a Sony Walkman Mp3 player over that of the Ipod, you are limited to purchasing music from the Sony store - which carries a much smaller song collection than Itunes.

In addition, people with off-brand MP3 players (like Creative Zen's offerings, or Iriver or Toshiba products) also have to contend with problems legally purchasing music that is compatible with their players. Efforts to offer cross compatibility (like when Real networks began to support Itunes m4a format) are swiftly met with litigation.

Another complication to the online music debate is the actual ownership of the content. Licensing music between countries is unbelievably cumbersome. To illustrate, take popular R & B artist D' Angelo. D'Angelo has released an album in Japan - for US fans of his work, actually acquiring this CD will be about $50, after import fees and shipping. And the content is not available online, as it was produced by a Japanese label. Purchasing music online is just as difficult - Itunes Japan does not carry artists on the Sony label. The Sony and Mura networks only carry music from specific labels.

This provides a headache for consumers: there is a will to legally purchase the music, but the means simply are not there.

The only recourse, in many cases, is to use the file sharing networks to obtain the songs. It is relatively quick, painless, free, and compatible over different networks and platforms.

The music industry is shooting itself in the foot. With its Nazi-like devotion to protecting their royalties and publishing, they have alienated many of their core consumers.

Steve Jobs' call for the end of DRM (or the potential open licensing of the most popular DRM software) is definitely a breath of fresh air for consumers who refuse to choke on the bitter rhetoric of the RIAA.