The music war is on. DRM shields up.

Note: This post is over 2 years old. You may want to check later in this blog to see if there is new information.

Samsung has joined the fray, along with Microsoft, Myspace and Spiral Frog/Universal to compete with iTunes. More options, more music, right? DRM issues aside, here’s my biggest problem. With the exception of Myspace, they all seem to be planning proprietary formats that can only be used on certain brands of players. There already exist a perfectly viable format that all players can handle. You might be familiar with it. It’s called mp3. What’s so hard about selling mp3’s? As I’ve discussed several times now, all of the DRM that is being thrown around doesn’t prevent piracy, it just makes it inconvenient for honest people to use the music that they actually paid for.

This use of proprietary formats harkens back to the days of the early browser wars between Microsoft and Netscape which, you may remember, caused nothing but trouble for users. The fact is, the different music stores have access to different music libraries, which means iPod users won’t have access to songs that Windows based player users will, and vice versa. It’s not an ideal situation, in my opinion, and is not a solution that is going to stop P2P piracy. I will not condone using P2P to steal music, but the framework that it provides is ultimately so convenient that a structured, profitable company will need to work a lot harder and provide a lot more freedom if it’s going to draw music lovers away from the world of music piracy.

Honestly, I’m really excited about Myspace, with DRM-free access to 3 million unsigned bands. The Long Tail of music will provide access to bands that we never would have heard of, and everyone will be able to use the files, iPod or Zen or whatever you choose to listen on. You could even, heaven forbid, burn a disc or two and listen on a CD player. Just until your iPod got fixed, of course. I’ve read that the Myspace model presents no threat to iTMS because it doesn’t use DRM. I fail to understand that. With that much music available, and artists able to promote and sell their own records and songs through an aggregated source, how could iTunes users not be interested? I guess I don’t know what the price points will be yet, but I imagine bands will realize they have to compete. Of course, I have a vivid imagination. And I come from a world where bands were more concerned with exposure than turning a buck.

So will these wars end up providing a plethora of options, or will someone win out and leave everyone else in relative obscurity (like the beta format or Netscape)? I’d be open to hearing your best guess.

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  1. J. Jeffryes 09.03.06 / 12am

    People decide to steal something or not based on three things. 1. How difficult it is 2. How likely it is they will be caught 3. How much they want to have the something.

    If music companies want to be successful, they have to make buying music easier than stealing it. Most people think the chances of being caught are very low, they really want the music, and it’s incredibly easy. Right now the RIAA is trying to change the perception of the probability of being caught, but to really have an effect they’re going to have to spend a lot of money. It would be far better to spend it to make buying songs legally much easier. But that would require new thinking, and big companies aren’t good at that.

    That’s why Apple succeeds with iTunes. It’s really, really easy to use, and the DRM doesn’t impact the user much. If you have to have DRM, then a lot of effort should be made to keep it out of the way of the user, and only have it kick in if you actually try to do something wrong with it, like put it on a filesharing site. That may not be feasible, but iTunes comes close enough it is the best currently available solution.