p2pnet news view Mobiles | DRM:- Remember back in 2002, 2003, when every corporate suit and his brother (and sister ) reckoned music lovers, sensitised by the Napster phenomenon, would flock in droves to anyone carrying ‘product’ from the Big 4 (or Big 5, as they were then)?

Didn’t happen and won’t happen. Not until catalogues are unlocked and wholesale prices lowered to enable meaningful competition.

“It’s like Farmer Jones growing the same type of cabbages loaded with growth hormones and genetically altered so they’re an identical shade of green, and then offing them in a brutal hard-sell to the same grocers,” said p2pnet Lo! those many ago.

We went on, “Because the cabbages have been artificially produced, they’re bland, wormy and tasteless but the grocers – packed together in the same shopping mall – are nonetheless trying to sell them at grossly inflated prices to a very small group of people who don’t know any better, or who just don’t care.

“In the UK, Farmer Jones would be called a Wide Boy and you’d see him selling off the back of a truck, one eye open for the police.

“In the meanwhile, while they wait for the market to equalize and settle, millions of discerning shoppers who long ago figured out there’s no point in trying to deal reasonably with Jones – he’s congenitally programmed to rip them off – are helping themselves to a huge range of tasty, organically grown cabbages and other produce from an equally vast range of farmers.”

It’s still the same in 2009. But now Microsoft has come up with an exciting new idea to make mobiles immobile.

Welcome back, DRM!

“Now here’s a recipe for success,” says Matt Rosoff on CNet News, continuing »»»

Take a brand that your parent company’s been on the verge of abandoning for the last four years. Slap it on a new music download store for mobile phones. Encrust all the tracks with DRM, even though the rest of the music download industry is finally moving away from DRM. Make sure that the downloads are tethered to the user’s handset, so they can’t keep them when they upgrade phones in a year or two. Charge more than the competition. Then, when questioned what the heck you could possibly have been thinking, blame a business partner who’s actually running the store for you!

On the same day Microsoft announces its first-ever major layoff, the company relaunches an MSN-branded download site for mobile phones in the United Kingdom. Huh?

That’s what Microsoft has done with yesterday’s launch of MSN Mobile Music, a new part of the U.K. version of its MSN Mobile portal.

But it’s all perfectly logical, explains Hugh Griffiths, head of mobile at Microsoft UK, in a PC Pro interview, which kicks off with,  “While companies such as Apple and Amazon have finally moved to music download services free of copy protection, MSN Mobile locks tracks to the mobile handset they are downloaded to.

Actually, the companies haven’t really dropped DRM. It’s only make-believe.

But anyway, “Why has Microsoft gone back to DRM when the vast majority of music services have ditched it?” – asks PC Pro.

“It’s a first step,” answers Griffiths. “We’re doing this in conjunction with a third-party provider. We’ll be looking to enhance the service if we get some interest from consumers. They certainly tell us that they like listening to music while they are out and about, on their mobile phones.”

Yes. But, why has Microsoft gone back to DRM when the vast majority of music services have ditched it?

Griffiths: At the moment, to be honest with you, we don’t have the functionality in-house to provide a mechanism for transferring between mobile phones and PC. We don’t have that functionality available.

Yes. But, why has Microsoft gone back to DRM when the vast majority of music services have ditched it?

Griffiths:  We will see what the outcome of this is. We’ll see whether customers find it an acceptable proposition or not. We’ve been encouraged by the results in the first couple of weeks. It’s ultimately down to consumer choice. We’d like to have offered a fuller service, we weren’t in a position to do so for a number of reasons.

Yes. But, why has Microsoft gone back to DRM when the vast majority of music services have ditched it?

Griffiths:  So there’s a whole bunch of people who are using MSN on their mobile phone for a whole variety of reasons. And we’re saying to them, if you want to download music, it’s available here. If you don’t, that’s fine. It’s a consumer’s choice and they will decide if they’re happy with the MSN Music service or if they want to go somewhere else.

Forget it.

Locked to my phone

PC Pro points out that at £1.50 (more than two bucks US) the download fee is high compared to 79p on iTunes, “and less than that on certain Amazon tracks”.

But no worries, says Griffiths, “We’re constantly reviewing our pricing and if we feel this price point is incorrect, we’ll look to amend it.”

“If I buy these songs on your service – and they’re locked to my phone – what happens when I upgrade my phone in six months’ time?” – Adds PC Pro.

“Well, I think you know the answer to that,” says Griffiths, and when he’s asked, “Can you really expect people to buy music that’s locked to a device they upgrade every 12 to 18 months?” – responds:

I didn’t realise phones were churning that quickly in the marketplace these days. I’m sure there are some users who change their phone every year. This is an introduction – it’s a toe in the water for MSN Mobile and we’ll see how the service develops and we’ll keep a very close eye on it, and we’ll look to amend and change it as necessary as time progresses.

Back in the US of A, “Most of the time, poking fun at a poorly thought-out Microsoft initiative is good-natured ribbing,” says Rosoff in CNet, adding:

“But this comes at a time when Microsoft just announced its worst earnings miss ever and is looking to cut 5,000 jobs over the next 18 months. That makes this kind of incompetence sad, not funny.”

identical shade of green – Apple and Real hack it out, July 31, 2004
CNet News – MSN Mobile Music: Worst idea ever?, January 23, 2009
PC Pro – Q&A: Microsoft defends return to DRM, January 222, 2009

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This entry was posted on Friday, January 23rd, 2009 at 2:14 pm and is filed under DRM, Mobiles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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