Steve Jobs Redux
Posted by: roscivs, in UncategorizedA few months ago I talked about Steve Jobs’ offer to remove DRM from music sold on the iTunes Music Store. As I noted then,
Many, including those at the aforementioned conference, have accused Steve Jobs of being “insincere,” calling his open letter a “red herring.” They believe that Jobs knows that the music companies will never allow him to sell music without DRM protection, and is simply bluffing to get the EU off his back. Steve would never sell music without DRM, they maintain. This is just a PR move—Apple needs DRM to keep people on iTunes and the iPod.
Turns out Jobs was being honest the whole time—last month, Apple announced that EMI, one of the big five media conglomerates, was going to begin selling DRM-free music on Apple’s store. (As an interesting aside, when this news hit, nearly everyone thought it was a great advance that would help both Apple and EMI—reporters were apparently having a difficult time finding people who didn’t think so.)
Now, Apple has reportedly extended this deal to anyone (including independent labels) who sells music on their web site. I’m hoping this results in great competition, where labels who embrace DRM-free music sell more than those who are reluctant to do so, eventually resulting in the death of all DRM-encumbered music.
Steve Jobs was right when he said the best solution was to abolish DRM entirely. And, due in a large way to his efforts in this arena, today we’re a little bit closer to that world.
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