Dear Mr Jobs,
I read with interest your article Thoughts on Music in which you discuss Apple and its stance on DRM (Digital Rights Management). You say with regard to the possibility of selling music without DRM,
This is clearly the best alternative for consumers, and Apple would embrace it in a heartbeat.
If that is the case, why do you insist on adding DRM to everything downloaded from the iTunes store? I can (and have) downloaded plain old MP3s of Lemon Jelly, Ladytron, The Fall, Calexico and The Decemberists from eMusic, but if I get them from your store they’ll be locked down (it would also cost more, but that’s another matter). Those labels are not insisting on DRM, so if it is the best choice for consumers what’s stopping you?
Posted: February 7th, 2007 under apple, drm.
Comments: 2
Comments
Comment from Al
Time: 7 February 2007, 14:59
Dear Chris,
The reason I have let it be known my thoughts on music is that due to the upcoming media attention on DRM and its evils, I want Apple still to be seen as “good” and “with the people”.
These are just my “thoughts” – I am obviously not going to remove DRM from my music when it is the only reason the record labels have agreed to supply me their catalogs, and is a major reason that the ipod/itunes has been so successful – you can only buy songs from itunes for use on the ipod (as opposed to any other player). If DRM was removed from the iTunes store, my ipod market share would drop significantly.
After all thoughts are thoughts, and practice is another thing (when it comes to profit margins).
regards,
Steve Jobs
(a.k.a. Al’s interpretation of things)
Pingback from CR Linefeed » Blog Archive » Well done Mr Jobs, but…
Time: 3 April 2007, 11:29
[...] In my last posting (which was some time ago) I wrote an open letter to Steve Jobs asking why if DRM was such a bad idea he was forcing indie labels to put it on their music in order to get it into the iTunes music store. Well it seems that Apple will soon be offering EMI music without any restrictions on it. [...]
Write a comment