Apple, EMI, DRM deal
p2pnet.net news:- Whatever one might say about Apple, it’s the Alpha company when it comes to marketing and PR.
To the world at large, Apple is All and Steve Jobs has been able to use his trademark Reality Distortion Field to spin his hard-core use of Apple’s misnamed FairPlay DRM (Digital Restrictions Management) consumer control against Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG, the members of the Big 4 music cartel, portraying them, and not Apple, as the bad guys.
Today, “EMI will announce that it is to offer a significant portion of its online catalogue without anti-piracy software – meaning that customers buying EMI’s music on iTunes would be free to play the songs on devices other than iPods and make multiple copies of their music for friends,” says The Times Online unequivocally.
Yesterday, the EMI event will feature Jobs and a ’special live performance’,” said Bloomberg News.
Might that be a Paul McCartney promo deal? He’s not shy about commercialising his end of The Beatles.
In February, “Apple also ended a dispute with the Beatles over rights to use the Apple name and logo, clearing the way for a possible deal to offer the group’s music on iTunes,” said Bloomberg, observing EMI is The Beatle’s label.
Jobs issued his papal bull, Thoughts on Music, in February saying, among other things:
Much of the concern over DRM systems has arisen in European countries. Perhaps those unhappy with the current situation should redirect their energies towards persuading the music companies to sell their music DRM-free. For Europeans, two and a half of the big four music companies are located right in their backyard. The largest, Universal, is 100% owned by Vivendi, a French company. EMI is a British company, and Sony BMG is 50% owned by Bertelsmann, a German company. Convincing them to license their music to Apple and others DRM-free will create a truly interoperable music marketplace. Apple will embrace this wholeheartedly.
Norway says Apple’s FairPlay DRM isn’t only unfair, it’s unlawful.
German and French consumer groups are demanding that Jobs makes iTunes compatible with music players made by other companies, and Melanie Tucker is looking for class-action status, saying Apple violates antitrust laws by refusing to allow music bought in its iTunes store to be played on any digital music player besides the iPod.
She also charges Apple with, “not making it clear to customers that music from the iTunes store and the iPod are incompatible with music and devices offered by other companies.
When Jobs came out with his Thoughts, EMI said it recognized the lack of interoperability between music players was “increasingly becoming an issue for music consumers” and said it was working with partners to find a solution’,” says Bloomberg.
Edgar Bronfman, ceo of Big 4 cartel member Warner Music, said publicly that Jobs’ DRM argument was “completely without logic or merit,” says the Times, going on:
“Privately, however, labels have been exploring the possibility of dropping DRM, which is thought to be partly responsible for the disappointing uptake of online music sales.”
That Warner and fellow cartel members EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG have since 2003 been attracting increasingly bad PR by trying to sue their own customers into buying ‘product’ might also have something to do with it.
Also See:
The Times Online – iTunes users can now share EMI songs, April 2, 2007
Bloomberg News – EMI Music, Apple CEO Jobs May Expand Online Music Partnership, April 1, 2007
papal bull – Thoughts on Steve Jobs’ Thoughts, February 8, 2007
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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!
April 2nd, 2007 at 8:49 am
This is good news even if EMI’s real motivation was trading DRM for a price increase on the downloading of singles.
April 2nd, 2007 at 9:03 am
Is Apple going to make it explicit which songs are DRM-ed or not? This could be more confusing to costumers because now they have to research which of their favorite artists are with EMI. Music fans shouldn’t have to worry about which artists are with which label.
SiSi
April 2nd, 2007 at 9:23 am
The non-DRM songs will be sold for $1.29 while the DRM-ed songs will continue to be sold for 99 cents in the U.S.
April 2nd, 2007 at 12:32 pm
http://p2pnet.net/story/11850