TidBITS Blames Lack of DRM-free Music on Apple
Adam Engst over at TidBITS is bemoaning the fact that the iTunes Store doesn’t have the same number of DRM free tracks as the Amazon MP3 store. He clearly blames this problem on Apple, even going so far as to quote Steve Jobs from the April 2007 introduction of iTunes Plus, Apple’s DRM free music.
…any moral high ground Apple may have achieved with the “Thoughts on Music” letter…will be ceded to Amazon.
What he is ignoring, however, is that Apple has to negotiate with recording companies who clearly don’t like Apple’s dominant position. So, if Apple doesn’t have all of the DRM free tracks that Amazon has, whose fault is it really?
It should be obvious to anyone who has watched how things have played out over the last year that its the record companies holding out on Apple, not the other way around. Apple has built a huge base for themselves and has a lot of influence in how things are happening in the digital music industry. By denying Apple the right to sell DRM-free songs, the record labels are trying to break them. Will it work? Only time will tell.
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January 11th, 2008 at 1:57 pm
It’s Apple’s problem until after Macworld, at which point it becomes the labels problem. Jobs specifically said that he expected to have half the iTunes Store DRM-free by the end of the year; he should be held to that. If he fails at it though, then the spotlight should be placed on the rightsholders who are playing favorites.
cheers… -Adam
January 11th, 2008 at 2:02 pm
Well, when Jobs made the prediction, I doubt he was expecting the record labels to make what would seem to be a really stupid decision to cut out the market leader in selling digital music.
It will be interesting to see what Steve has to say next week.