Online music: Don't believe the hype

[thatcrazycajun]

A USA Today columnist, writing in an article the Indianapolis Star published on its website here, says that all the media foofaraw about how online music is the wave of the future doesn't stand up to cold, hard scrutiny of the actual numbers involved. And the truth about how little music is really sold online (as opposed to the 90% or so sold through CDs and other hard media) suddenly makes it clear why Apple Inc. cult leader Steve Jobs has recently decided to take on the music industry's demand for digital rights management (DRM) protection for its "content" when sold through iTunes and other online stores.

The writer argues that unless the big record-label congloms wise up and realize that DRM not only is not giving them the anti-piracy security they crave but is actually hindering legit customers, real growth in online music sales won't happen. I tend to agree; there are way too many users out there with the software and savvy to crack most existing DRM schemes (or "infections," as the techies like to call them) for it to be anything more than a technological blankie to let record-label, TV-network and movie-studio suits sleep at night and not feel like they're giving away the store. Other opinions?

Comments

[happyfunpaul.livejournal.com]

I don't know about the big picture, but for me, I still haven't gotten around to using iTunes or anything similar. Part of that is laziness and uncertainty, but part of it is that I really do want my music to come in a high-quality format that is freely convertible to other formats with no straings attached (mp3 at 192+ kbps, for example). I don't actually even know what iTunes currently uses but I doubt it's anything like that.