So when Steve Jobs shared his thoughts on music in February, was he actually whining about how it was the fault of the record companies if Apple, Inc. doesn’t sell an iPod to all 6+ billion inhabitants of planet Earth? Microsoft’s lawyer, Brad Smith, seems to think so, as he recently informed the Australian IT newspaper.
Smith, who is senior vice-president and general counsel at Microsoft, reportedly said, “I’m not a big believer in just blaming the music industry for Apple’s inability to sell every conceivable iPod.” Now when I read Jobs’s missive, this excerpt stands out:
If the big four music companies would license Apple their music without the requirement that it be protected with a DRM, we would switch to selling only DRM-free music on our iTunes store. Every iPod ever made will play this DRM-free music.
I may be crazy (and let’s never rule that out), but I don’t interpret this as, “If the record companies don’t help me blanket the globe in iPods, so help me, I will destroy them!” Now that EMI is moving towards non-DRM tracks on the iTunes store, will the other three companies (Universal, Sony BMG, and Warner) follow suit? I can’t say for sure but meanwhile, I think the only whining is coming from the Redmond section of the West Coast.
What a bizarre ... what is it, a charge, an analysis, a taunt? An MS dude is saying that Apple is dissatisfied with their iPod sales?
If MS were a person, they'd be all kinds of psychotic at this point in time.
Yea, who's really whining? It's not Steve Jobs and Apple as they are doing quite well with music sales and now already have there first label that is going to sell DRM free music.
My thoughts exactly.
Lately I picture MS as saying, in the appropriate voice,
"Marsha, Marsha, Marsha!"
Am I the only one who doesn't get the cheese reference?
@wookie: That was my oblique reference to the old taunt, "you want some cheese with that whine?"
@Kate: It all seems so obvious now… ;o)
@wookie: No worries. It's not like I ever said I was mature :-)
@Kate: Don't think that slipped under the radar. I'm watching you…