I like Cory Doctorow, for the most part. Sure, he’s kind of odd, but I appreciate his take-no-prisoners anti-DRM stance, if only because it acts as cosmic balance to the pro-DRM forces of the RIAA and record labels—yin-yang, Dark Side-Light Side, Yankees-Red Sox, etc. But that doesn’t mean I always agree completely with everything that comes out of Cory’s mouth.
The Salon article he penned this week is a prime example. I wholeheartedly support his conclusion:
At the end of the day, DRM is the biggest impediment to a legitimate music market. Apple doesn’t sell music because of DRM — it sells music in spite of DRM. The iTunes Store proves that you can compete with free. People have bought billions of dollars worth of music from Apple because it offered a better user experience. But no one bought for the DRM. Some people bought in spite of it, some bought in ignorance of it, but there’s no customer for whom DRM is a selling point. No one woke up this morning wishing for a way to do less with her music.But the way he gets to that conclusion is rife with half-truths and disingenuous arguments.
There is no mention, for example, of the fact that burning your iTunes music to CDs and re-ripping them is a legitimate way to strip off the DRM. Doctorow compares iTunes DRM to spyware, citing the Sony rootkit debacle, which is pretty ridiculous. He also suggests that it’s impossible to get music (or podcasts) off of an iPod, despite the plethora of software utilities designed to help you do just that. Or pointing out that since what you put on your iPod comes via the iTunes application, those files are all on your computer anyway.
Doctorow makes some decent points alongside his more spurious ones, for example: why can’t Apple sell DRM-free music from the labels/artists that want to? (John Gruber addressed the same point in a recent post.) And given that Apple has demonstrated the clout to refute variable pricing demands, why not take a more dramatic stand on the DRM issue, rather than bowing subserviently to the will of the record companies?
At the end of the day, I think Cory’s goals are admirable, but I’m just not sure if his tactics and arguments are helping the fight or holding it back. Thoughts?
I would like to see Apple sell non-DRM tracks when they can. For example, I've purchased many tracks from Bleep in MP3 format in lieu of the same tracks on iTunes in protected AAC format. The fact that these tracks are on Bleep means that the labels don't mind selling them without DRM.
However, I think segmenting iTunes into DRM and non-DRM tracks violates a "simplicty" principle which Apple has adopted. They believe that DRM differences will confuse customers since now they will have to look at the fine print on each track to find out if it includes DRM or not.
The "simplicity" principle also applies to pricing, but Apple really does have variable pricing on albums now. Albums range in price from $7.99 for discount back catalog albums to $11.99 for new releases with a booklet. I think I saw some budget classical recordings for as low as $5.99. And you can get 8 hour collections of "50 Trance Tunes" for only $9.99.
Hopefully, Apple will reconsider the necessity of "simplcity" against the desire of users to purchase tracks without DRM.
I agree. CD totally side-stepped the burn-and-re-rip option, which pretty much wrecks his argument: the proposition that the iTS locks users into buying/owning/only using the iPod is preposterous (Jobs pretty much addressed this). He should know better.
Pundits keep taking Apple to task here, but really, there's not much the company can do. Sure, they could go ahead and sell DRM-free music on iTunes from the bands that are willing to do so, but let's be real: it wouldn't make any difference. If you don't buy that, take a look at the enormous sales difference between iTunes and eMusic, the number two music retailer online. All of eMusic's offerings are DRM-free, and their sales are a fraction of a fraction of iTunes. Apple could swallow them whole, and you'd barely notice the increase in iTunes' sales numbers.
No, DRM-free music will only truly matter in the marketplace when there is a critical mass of mass-market music available without restriction, and the only way that will happen is for one or more of the major labels to be willing to sell it that way. Blame Apple all you want, but the company can't make the labels want to do this. Until one of them caves, DRM is here to stay. There's not much Apple can do about it.
"burning your iTunes music to CDs and re-ripping them is" a sure way to make the already compressed music even more crap. You can even play the music on loudspeakers and rerecord with a mic as well... eh