News, info, and opinion by Mac users, for Mac users.

May 8, 2007

music

Jobs: “Mr. Record Companies, tear down the walls!”

Posted May. 8, ’07, 8:50 AM PT by Dan Moren
Category | Music

Jobs: Tear down this wall...I may have snagged myself the “MacUser Chief Prognosticator” title. Just under a month ago, I wrote about the imminent conference between the major record labels and Apple:

The real question for me is whether Steve will return the labels’ one-two subscription/variable pricing combo with a DRM-free haymaker: “Sure…we can sell some of your songs for thirty cents more…as long as you provide them at higher quality with no DRM.”
The AP says today, of the talks:
As a new round of talks ramp up this month, however, Jobs has opened the door to higher prices — as long as music companies let Apple Inc. sell their songs without technology designed to stop unauthorized copying.

Jobs contends that would “tear down the walls” by allowing consumers to play music they buy at Apple’s iTunes store on any digital music player, not just the company’s iPods.

Of course, without either the record labels or Apple commenting, it’s hard to say exactly how true these allegations are. Suggestions are also in the air that the record labels are looking for more download “bundles” (meaning, perhaps, the dreaded “Album Only” tracks?), though it may refer to multimedia bundles of music videos and albums.

Jobs is a hard man to negotiate against, so don’t me surprised if the record execs stumble into daylight at the conclusion of the negotiations, blearily shielding their eyes and mumbling to each other “Wait…what did we just agree to?” Relax, fellas, you’re just feeling the after-effects of the ol’ RDF.

Update: My totally hideous Photoshop job replaced by a much prettier picture. Thanks, Tony!


1 Comments

John said:

Well if Jobs can get this done 30 cents more will be easy to cope with. It will definitely change everything if this happens, for the better.
Thanks Steve Jobs!

May 8, 2007 11:15 AM

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