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Microsoft Set to Unlock EMI Songs, Too
Posted by
Zonk
on Fri Apr 06, 2007 08:43 AM
from the very-brave-new-world dept.
from the very-brave-new-world dept.
linumax writes "Microsoft has stated that it may be close to reaching a deal with EMI to sell songs without anti-piracy protection via the Zune platform. This, from comments made by head of marketing for Zune Jason Reindorp. They come hard on the heels of EMI's announcement that a deal with Apple to sell songs without DRM protection through the iTunes Music Store has been struck. Mr Reindorp said: 'We've been saying for a while that we are aware that consumers want to have unprotected content. This does open things up a little bit. It potentially makes the competition more of a device-to-device or service-to-service basis, and will force the various services to really innovate.'"
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News: Steve Jobs Announces (some) DRM-free iTunes 838 comments
Fjan11 writes "Steve Jobs just announced that starting next month on you can buy higher quality 256Kbps AAC encoded DRM-free versions of iTunes songs for $1.29. Upgrades to songs you've already bought will be available at the $0.30 price difference. Currently EMI is the only publisher participating, accounting for about 20% of the songs available." There's also reports from Reuters and ABC News. The deal excludes the Beatles. You can also read the official press release from Apple if you still think this a late joke; this story confirms earlier speculation.
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not only that .. (Score:5, Funny)
A MS Strategic Meeting (Score:5, Funny)
1. What has Apple been doing this month?
2. What has Google been doing this month?
3. Are there other interesting things to copy?
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Just like they invented the GUI (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
Re: (Score:3)
Re:not only that .. (Score:5, Insightful)
Claiming this is Apple "innovation" is as ridiculous as claiming this is Microsoft "innovation". Give credit where credit is due - bravo EMI.
Parent
Splendid! (Score:2, Funny)
Price comparison (Score:3, Informative)
Some facts to accompany your quip:
Coldplay's album "X&Y" is an EMI release.
Full album from iTunes Store = $11.99
Full album from Amazon = $11.97 + S&H
Full album from Best Buy = $13.99 in store
Full album from Caiman via Amazon Used & New = $11.93 with shipping
Sure iTunes isn't the absolute cheapest way to get it, but the tradeoff of price/convenience seems reasonable to me. Get it within minutes from iTunes, or pay $2.00 more and pick it up at Best Buy, or save $0.06 and get it in a few
Re:Price comparison (Score:4, Insightful)
1) lossless sound encoding on my good audio equipment
2) a physical backup, also lossless
3) an asset that can be re-sold when I no longer want it.
The way I look at it, with a CD I get all three of the above, and it costs no more than a lossy data file from iTunes that can't be re-sold.
Parent
So the question is... (Score:4, Insightful)
I think not.
Re:So the question is... (Score:5, Informative)
Remember, EMI and Yahoo Music have been testing the waters with DRM-free MP3s and WMAs since at least July with music by Jessica Simpson, Jesse McCartney, Norah Jones, and Relient K. Steve's bold open letter was posted one month ago.
Parent
Time to ... Wait! (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
I agree, although I would be more inclined to say that, like the vast majority of Microsoft products, it will always blow chunks. Worse, because Microsoft is kow-towing to the media companies, it will probably always be more restricted than competitive products.
It has nothing significant to offer over iPods, let alone 90% of the more recent non-Apple players.
Dead on. As a "recent non-Apple player" owner, I have a SanDisk San
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
That's completely untrue.
Word blew chunks until 6.0
RIP DRM? (Score:2)
Part of me wants to continue boycotting their stuff anyway, as punishment for years of bad behavior
Here's what I see... (Score:5, Interesting)
1) They unlock certain songs, and shortly thereafter, claim these songs are now more-heavily pirated, and use it for justification to sell more DRM to recording agencies
2) Same as #1, except they claim the songs are not selling better, and declare that DRM isn't an obstruction
3) they still include some kind of DRM but call it something else
4) They've actually seen the light, and are now going to try to innovate instead of regulate.
Did I miss any?
P.S. I don't have a lot of confidence in 4).
Re:Here's what I see... (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
Re:.wma in iTunes (Score:4, Informative)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
so in the case of 2, what would we have to complain about? *If* people don't care and don't preferentially buy DRM-free, do you expect major labels to remove DRM restrictions despite the fact they would have proven that the market wasn't interested? They aren't sitting up in their offices working out how to make Slashdot-ters happy, y'know.
And even more telling, option 4 seems to define the word 'innovate' as 'do exactly what we want
no thanks to MS (Score:3, Interesting)
It probably goes without saying, but this isn't some initiative on MS' part. It's riding Jobs' coattails, crying "me too!, me too!", as if MS is some kind of crusader for consumers' rights around music and DRM.
Interesting how MS plays this as "opening up" things for the consumer. We'll see. I wonder how much progress MS has really made unencumbering consumers' music.
I don't hold my breath waiting for MS to do anything for me. I cringe they are jumping on this as a potential PR windfall for them and their Zune. Fortunately, the Zune was pretty much issued DOA, and this doesn't make a whit of difference.
Re:no thanks to MS (Score:4, Insightful)
Even for Apple and EMI this isn't opening things up for anyone. It's charging more for the same fucking shit you would get from a CD while approaching or even surpassing the cost of the physical media while not having the physical media to keep or uncompressed and high quality audio.
I'm tired of this entire EMI thing. I'm not fucking impressed at all.
Parent
Re:no thanks to MS (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
As much as I didn't like how Apple did things, they did it a lot better and with very few restrictions in comparison. I really don't believe Steve Job's stated reasoning for not wanting to licence "FairPlay" either, people have mana
Re: (Score:2)
Not for the past year or so. The iTunes 6-7 AES-based scheme is unbroken, much to my dismay (of being able to buy stuff from iTunes and use it on my devices without taking a quality hit).
There's an attack against Windows to intercept the data stream, but that's not actually an encryption break.
Re:no thanks to MS (Score:5, Informative)
I think you need to go back and read EMI's announcement [emigroup.com]. Some relevant quotes (emphasis added):
"From today, EMI's retailers will be offered downloads of tracks and albums in the DRM-free audio format of their choice in a variety of bit rates up to CD quality."
"EMI's new DRM-free products will enable full interoperability of digital music across all devices and platforms."
"Apple's iTunes Store (www.itunes.com) is the first online music store to receive EMI's new premium downloads."
EMI had always planned to make its catalog available to anyone that wants it, not just through iTunes and not just AAC files. The only exclusivity Apple ever had was in making the co-announcement.
Parent
Re:no thanks to MS (Score:5, Interesting)
In interviews after the announcement EMI said it was them, not Apple, that initiated the push for DRM-free music. They had already experimented with smaller versions of the program in the past. Internal tests said their own employees preferred the option to buy DRM-free tunes.
I wouldn't be surprised if the timeline was: discussed it with Steve Jobs sometime in 2006, they were close to inking a deal, Jobs publishes his "Thoughts on Music", EMI and Apple push the new initiative. Jobs looks like a visionary, EMI looks like a marketplace innovator.
In other words, how Jobs usually plans things: to make it look most appealing marketwise.
Parent
Accuracy of title? (Score:2, Insightful)
Still, I don't think it's fair to c
What about what ol' BG said (Score:5, Insightful)
Just for the record (Score:5, Informative)
If I'm not mistaken
But you are [techcrunch.com] (well, at least the real picture is a bit more muddled)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Or you can sit around and complain about microsoft, thus making sure no one knows how wrong Apple is and, as usual, continue to accomplish nothing but whine and moan.
Indeed (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
I'm not holding my breath too much on any of the other DRM stuff. It isn't likely that MS would reverse a position on anything that didn't already have some viable competition involved. MS has been able to push the DRM from the aspect that they control the access users have and decided to create a business model out of that control.
Since when? (Score:5, Insightful)
Since when? As far as I know, what they are trying is to provide the ultimate protection to content, from the file format [microsoft.com] to the media player software [microsoft.com] to the output hardware [microsoft.com].
Re:Since when? (Score:5, Informative)
This is just Microsoft spin at its quickest.
(Although he did also say, ""the stars were already aligning" to loosen the restrictions." (Ibid). Nothing like CYA.
Parent
Now that the eight Zune owners in the world... (Score:4, Funny)
DRM on Wireless transfers? (Score:2)
Of course, it would also make it a hell of a lot easier to pirate songs as well. Something tells me that the RIAA would never let this happen
Cool! Next step: price (Score:5, Interesting)
If I can buy uncrippled, high quality media files, I will. ~256K VBR mp3 is about the lowest I'll consider. Yes, I can hear the difference, consistently. Apple's 256K AAC should meet this spec, though I haven't listened to much AAC.
Now, it's time to optimize the price. I'm aware that the actual costs of distribution over the net is very low, and I don't care about marketing costs, because virtually nothing I listen to is marketed at all. I don't like being ripped off. $1/song is still a ripoff, but for uncrippled content I'll probably buy a few albums I've been wanting, just to encourage them.
But. At $.50/song and $5.00/album, I'd buy 100 albums today. I've got a five year backlog to catch up on. Probably be good for another 10/month, too.
Come on, music labels. Talk to your artists, see who's willing to experiment with the prices. Healthy industries with real competition experiment with prices to find the most profitable price points. You're pricing like a monopoly, but you're forgetting that we do have alternatives: Free legal music, free illegal music, boycott, video, games, books, etc. I suspect you'd make a lot more money if you weren't so greedy, scared, contemptuous and contemptible. Why not find out?
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Just The Price Of Higher Prices (Score:5, Insightful)
So when Jobs started talking about removing DRM, probably not just a coincidence, it set the stage for EMI to offer DRM free tracks, but at a higher price per track. It looks as if stripping DRM was the price of raising the price per track. Perhaps the record companies are realizing that removing DRM is the only way in the near term of loosening Apple's grip on the digital music market. Of course it is interesting to note that the DRM-less tracks from iTunes will be in AAC format which, while other players can support it, will tend to keep most people in the iPod fold since converting to other formats like MP3 is a hassle most consumers would prefer not to be bothered with. So I would look for growth in the number of AAC supporting players.
Someone tag this "Me too!" (Score:5, Insightful)
Netscape revolutionizes the Web -- MS creates free Internet Explorer. OSX introduces Expose, the Dock, and Widgets -- four years later Vista "innovates" with duplicate features. Apple rakes in millions with the iPod -- Microsoft creates poo-colored, squirting Zune. Google goes IPO -- MS announces "all-new, improved, better-than-ever" MSN search. Apple announces DRM-free music -- you guessed it: Me too! Me too! Me too!
I don't hate Microsoft (though sometimes it seems like they work awfully hard to make people hate them) but I'm not buying their "We want to eliminate DRM too" PR either. Microsoft's media file format, software, hardware player, and store are all strong arguments that that's a load of monkey excrement.
Good News but DRM is not "protection" (Score:2)
Surely nobody still thinks that digital restrictions management provides "anti-piracy protection"? It's about control.
Even the MPAA knows that current DRM encourages piracy [freshdv.com] by making paid-for music more of a hassle.
Re: (Score:2)
It reads like a press release from Microsoft, and without having RTFA, I can't say whether or not it actually is.
No surprise (Score:2)
The truth is, were Linux accessible to the masses, Windows would be free.
Zune Wireless (Score:3, Interesting)
I can't help but wonder when the first RIAA lawsuit is brought forth against Apple or MS for "Enabling Filesharing" by "Failing to protect copyrighted content". And then going after the HDD manufacturers for making access to the files so easy.
this is amazing news! (Score:2, Funny)
Yes, I guess they are still selling Zunes.
Almost there (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
I was skeptical of "off" formats for a long time, sticking with MP3 for its playability and widespread compatibility. Once I discovered RockBox, though, along with Cog and Foobar2000 (th
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
If your player doesnt support it, there's nothing to stop you converting the file, although you will suffer a slight drop in quality due to transcoding and MP3 being an inferior format. Alternatively, you can wait for more players to support AAC,