DRM could be a worry: new report
p2pnet.net news:- A new study adds strength to reports of growing consumer dissatisfaction with DRM (Digital Restrictions Management) consumer control.
Music Downloaders aged 12 and older are showing an, “apparent increasing sophistication” regarding song use restrictions”. The, “freedom to do whatever they want with the music they buy has become significantly more important,” says a new study, carefully avoiding use of the actual term ‘DRM’ or Digital Rights Management, as it’s known in corporate circles.
“This may reflect a growing awareness and understanding of the inherent restrictions that exist in many of the current digital music services, and could also point to heightened concerns for this in the future,” says Ipsos’ new TEMPO Digital Music Brandscape release.
Meanwhile, “Apple’s iTunes continues to strengthen its position as the fee-based digital music destination, “while a host of other services are striving to grow consumer mindshare and establish clear points of differentiation”.
That’s interesting given that iTunes is a means of promoting the company’s iPod music player, and providing content for it, rather than being a true general purpose music delivery platform. And one could hardly call the handful of competing corporate services, all trying to sell the same product at the same prices, a host.
Be that as it may, among American downloaders aged 12 and older, “iTunes gained significantly in both unaided and aided awareness over 2005, moving from 57% to 66% for total awareness,” says the report.
Napster “experienced some erosion” in awareness, dropping from 79% to 68%, awareness of Yahoo Music increased over the past year, with total awareness reaching 53% from 49% in 2005, and, “Perhaps the most significant development this year was the strong gain in awareness of MySpace, which jumped from 16% to 54% in just one year,” says Ipsos, noting its study was conducted before the launch of Microsoft’s Zune Marketplace.
Ipsos goes on, “While Napster continues to hold the No. 1 position in overall consumer awareness, American Downloaders are more likely to rate iTunes as the ‘best’ fee-based digital music service, followed by Napster (41% vs. 11%, respectively). The change in ‘best’ identification was significant for both brands, with iTunes increasing from 33% and Napster dropping from 22%.
“Social networking site MySpace made strong gains in ‘best’ mentions as well, jumping from just 2% in 2005 to 8% in 2006, making it the third ‘best’ brand after iTunes and Napster.
” ‘Best’ brand mentions decreased for LAUNCHcast, MusicMatch, AOL and RealPlayer, while mentions for other online digital music services and stores remained fairly consistent over the past year.”
Good sound quality, ease of use, ease of search, a broad selection, low prices and good value were all reported to be important when choosing an online digital music service or store, while value-added features that had been less important last year showed the largest gains in importance this year, including extras like Podcasts or album artwork and the ability to exchange ideas or recommendations with other users, adds the report, giving the impression that a significant corporate online music business exists.
However, compared to what’s happening on the p2p networks and growing numbers of independent sites and services, the corporate online music download business is so tiny as to be virtually invisible.
Its failure to become established can be attributed to inordinately high prices, the paucity of downloads and the continuing efforts of the dominant labels, EMI (Britain), Vivendi Universal (France), Sony BMG (Japan and Germany) and Warner Music (US), to try to sue consumers into buying their releases, and only theirs.
This has alienated former and existing customers and created a brand new consumer class of people who consciously avoid anything which even remotely resembles Big Music ‘product’.
The realities of what’s happening in the world of online music continue to be largely ignored by the mainstream media and companies such as Ipsos, which suggest large numbers of people are buying downloads supplied by the members of the Big 4 music cartel.
They’re right about one thing, however: more and more people are enjoying their music on portable players, with Apple’s iTunes leading the pack.
What they’re not saying is: its useage isn’t driven by downloads from sites such as iTunes. It’s created almost entirely by what the Big 4 call “illegal” file sharing, something they’re trying desperately to crush.
If they succeed, it won’t be long before Ipsos and companies like it are producing reports on the decline in the popularity of portable music players and, hence, a drop in sales.
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Tired of being treated like a criminal? They depend on you, not the other way around. Don’t buy their ‘product’. Do bug your local politicians. Use emails, snail-mail, phone calls, faxes, IM, stop them in the street, blog. And if you’re into organizing, organize petitions, organize demonstrations and then turn up on your local political rep’s doorstep, making sure you’ve contacted your local tv/radio station/newspaper in advance. Don’t just complain. Do something!
March 14th, 2007 at 11:34 am
This is another fluff piece. They are trying to set the stage for their next desire, a price increase. Naturally they will chose to point to this article to say that it is the customer that demands it and they will do so for a price increase. This has already been mentioned earlier here in another article.
Get this cartels, you’ve gone too far as it is in high prices. Coupled with the DRM you are only punishing those you should be rewarding for buying your product. The rest of us don’t have to put up with the high prices for poor goods. Nor are we limited as you would wish us to be with only what you would deem the allowable.
Instead the price is right for testing and there are no limitations in p2p with music. That’s why everyone is there. We can no longer hear new music on the public channels. P2p has become the new listening area from former customers tired of price gouging and filler.
Oh, do hold on to the DRM. Never ever let it go. We can’t wait to bury the existing cartels.
March 15th, 2007 at 1:49 am
“What they’re not saying is: its useage isn’t driven by downloads from sites such as iTunes. It’s created almost entirely by what the Big 4 call “illegal” file sharing, something they’re trying desperately to crush.”
THAT pretty much says it all….