p2pnet - rss feed: Apple still coy on DRM-free iTunes
p2pnet.net news:-Like an an old-style burlesque stripper waving fans in front of her body, only to retreat behind a curtain at the crucial moment, Apple is teasing Macolytes with the supposed impending arrival of DRM-free iTunes product, failing to provide a firm date on when this will happen.
But that that’s no surprise: ‘teasing’ is a vital part of Apple’s marketing strategy.
The company has negotiated a deal with Britain’s EMI to deliver much, if not most, of the EMI catalogue without DRM (Digital Restrictions Management) consumer control.
It’ll be selling unrestricted EMI downloads of a slightly higher quality than existing ones, which are already seriously overpriced at $1 each, for a reported $1.30 per.
When, however, is it going to happen?
“Partly out of frustration with Apple, some of the music companies have been slowly retreating from their longtime insistence on selling music online with digital locks that prevent unlimited copying,” says The New York Times. “Their aim is to sell more music that can be played on Apple’s wildly popular iPod device, which is not compatible with the protection software used by most other digital music services. EMI led the reversal, striking a deal with Apple to offer its music catalog in the unrestricted MP3 format.
“Some music executives say that dropping copy-restriction software, also known as digital-rights management, would stoke business at iTunes’ competitors and generate a surge in sales. Others predict it would have little impact, though they add that the labels squandered years on failed attempts to restrict digital music instead of converting more fans into paying consumers.”
Earlier this week came reports that has been, “beaten to the punch on the first ever digital reissues of Paul McCartney’s solo repertoire - Napster, Rhapsody, Urge and Zune Marketplace added the songwriter’s back catalog on Wednesday, while iTunes is blank,” says paidContent, going on it’s, “learned the apparent delay is down to the preparation of ‘an exclusive’ offering that will come along with the material”.
A spokesperson for EMI, “which holds McCartney’s back catalog on the Parlophone imprint,” said the “exclusive” would, “appear with the 25-album archive on iTunes Store in keeping with Apple’s earlier claim the re-releases would be available ‘this month’. Asked for a progress update on delivery of its new, DRM-less repertoire, which EMI slated for a May release when it announced last month that Apple would get the line-up first, the EMI spokesperson confirmed that this development was also on course to make good on that schedule.
“Join the dots together and it seems that McCartney’s material, plus something extra, will be the thing that finally fronts the launch of the DRM-free future for EMI and Apple next week.”
paidContent also notes today Monday is a public holiday both in Britain, home to EMI, and in the US, “so mark Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday”.
We can hardly wait.
In the meanwhile, people who use the net to get their online music fixes, by far the vast majority, will continue to look to independent download services, sites generated by musicians themselves and to the p2p networks, as they’ve been doing since the beginning. And there’s no chance of over-priced downloads by Apple, or by anyone else - DRM-free or not - changing this picture.
Also See:
EMI catalogue - EMI unlikely to change DRM plans, May 25, 2007
The New York Times - Plunge in CD Sales Shakes Up Big Labels, May 28, 2007
paidContent - McCartney iTunes Delay Due To ‘Exclusive’, DRM-Less Next Week, May 25, 2007
since the beginning - 1 billion songs a DAY shared online, March 8, 2007
f your Net access is blocked by government restrictions, try Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto’s Munk Centre for International Studies. Go here for the official download, here for the p2pnet download, and here for details. And if you’re Chinese and you’re looking for a way to access independent Internet news sources, try Freegate, the DIT program written to help Chinese citizens circumvent web site blocking outside of China. Download it here.
rss feed: http://p2pnet.net/p2p.rss | | Mobile - http://p2pnet.net/index-wml.php | | And use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site
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!
May 28th, 2007 at 7:57 pm
You’re an ass. Yeah, those artist MP3 sites are hopping! The EMI music will be in AAC not MP3…So seems the person you quoted is just as clueless as you are.