If a consumer were to switch from CDs to legal music download services, there is quite a large selection to choose from, such as iTunes, Napster, Rhapsody and Sony Connect just to name a few. However if the consumer gets an MP3 player, their choice of stores narrows depending on if they would like to take music with them or what formats the player supports. The former RIAA CEO Hilary Rosen has just fallen into this 'trap' after receiving an iPod from a friend as the iPod only officially works with iTunes.
As a result Rosen published a column in "The Huffington" mentioning all about her frustration as well as complaining about Apple for its iPod's lack of diversity. She also criticises Steve Jobs for continuing its monopoly by not adding support for other players in iTunes or allowing other music services to support the iPod. Finally she also claims that the iPod is a very expensive trap since there are many other MP3 players selling as cheap as $29 that work with a wide range of legal music download stores. However, despite all her frustrations with the iPod, she does mention how nice it looks including its blue leather case. :p RTV71 used our news submit to let us know about the following news:
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What was billed as a mecca of famous, liberal commentators has turned out to be a satire site in the tradition of The Onion. Yep, Arianna has done it again and fooled us all. Kudos. At first glance, The Huffington Post has the look and feel of an average but at least real web site, if you ignore the site's name. It has supposed entries from the likes of Walter Cronkite and John Cusack. But the dead giveaway that this is a spoof after all comes from the blog entry titled "Steve Jobs, Let my Music Go." Hilary Rosen - the former head of the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) - claims to be the author of this post. In the entry, she begs and pleads with Apple's CEO to open the iPod to digital rights management schemes from other vendors - namely Microsoft. Read the full article here |
It is nice to see the former RIAA CEO experiencing what it is actually like to be a consumer that is controlled by DRM. However, it is also interesting to see how she never blames DRM itself, but instead the market leading music download store that has actually proven that a music download store can be successful despite the problem with unauthorised music shared over P2P.
In my opinion, Apple seems to be more interested in using DRM to control what the consumers can do with their music rather than use DRM to reduce piracy as it was intended for. For example, there is little stopping a consumer from recording iTunes music to CD, ripping it back off as MP3 and sharing it over P2P, however Apple does try to block off competitors from using its format as well as try to stop consumers from stripping the DRM off its music, such as to play on a non iPod MP4 compatible player.
Source: Slyck News
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