The Macalope

Steve Jobs provides his Thoughts on Music (tip o’ the antlers to BoingBoing) and specifically DRM.

Here are some key sections:

Apple was able to negotiate landmark usage rights at the time, which include allowing users to play their DRM protected music on up to 5 computers and on an unlimited number of iPods.

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However, a key provision of our agreements with the music companies is that if our DRM system is compromised and their music becomes playable on unauthorized devices, we have only a small number of weeks to fix the problem or they can withdraw their entire music catalog from our iTunes store.

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So far we have met our commitments to the music companies to protect their music, and we have given users the most liberal usage rights available in the industry for legally downloaded music.

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Apple has concluded that if it licenses FairPlay to others, it can no longer guarantee to protect the music it licenses from the big four music companies.

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Imagine a world where every online store sells DRM-free music encoded in open licensable formats. In such a world, any player can play music purchased from any store, and any store can sell music which is playable on all players. This is clearly the best alternative for consumers, and Apple would embrace it in a heartbeat.

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Why would the big four music companies agree to let Apple and others distribute their music without using DRM systems to protect it? The simplest answer is because DRMs haven’t worked, and may never work, to halt music piracy.

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Much of the concern over DRM systems has arisen in European countries. Perhaps those unhappy with the current situation should redirect their energies towards persuading the music companies to sell their music DRM-free.

It’s an interesting read. Jobs also says that as only 3% of music on an iPod is FairPlay-protected, Apple doesn’t see it as a scheme to lock users in.

The part of Steve Jobs will be played by Charlton Heston. The part of Mitch Bainwol will be played by Yul Brynner (antler tip to Your Daily Dosage for the correction).

The Macalope has a better question: who cares?

The Apple web is rife with cries of “woe is Apple” and angry denouncements today over Forrester Research’s report claiming that the only people still buying songs from the iTunes Store are a family of shut-ins in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

Forrester’s conclusion is that DRM isn’t working and people are still stealing music as their primary means of acquisition.

That’s not the Macalope’s experience, but for the sake of argument (and because it spares the Macalope from having to do a bunch of math), let’s say Forrester is right and iTunes sales are down 375 million percent or whatever they said.

Let’s look at some things that make this less concerning than you might think:

1. Apple doesn’t make money on music sales. They’re used to drive iPod sales.
2. iPod sales are still strong.
3. iTunes is still by far the most popular online music store.
4. Falling sales of DRM-ed music mean the recording industry has to consider non-DRM solutions.

The negatives are:

1. The recording industry could come up with something more heinous than DRM.
2. Apple will no longer have the “velvet lock” of iTunes DRM that keeps customers in iPods.

But then they’ll just have to keep people buying iPods by keeping them awesome.

So, can we all calm down, please? The Macalope can barely hear his iTunes-purchased Christmas music over all the shouting.

Hey, kids! You looooooove subscription-based music subscription models, don’t you?!

Sure you do! Everyone does!

Why, Universal Music Group’s Jimmy Iovine loves subscriptions!

“We have to get into more of the revenue stream. The eventual answer may be a flat fee that enables you to listen to all the music you want.”

And he knows Bruce Springsteen!

But it’s not just him! The big brains at Jupiter Research likes subscriptions, too!

So why wouldn’t you love subscriptions?! Why ya gotta own everything? Are you greedy? Is that it? Just thinking about yourself and not struggling music industry executives, their brows moist with perspiration (albeit induced by the elliptical trainer) as they pick which music they’re going to ram down your throats this year?

Or maybe you’re thinking about the so-called “artists”, really nothing more than a collection of un-showered communists, if you ask the Macalope. Thank goodness someone is doing something to put them in their place.

No, no. The sooner you start sending your monthly tithe to the recording industry, the sooner we’ll achieve the perfect musical utopia they have planned for us.

UPDATE: Andy Ihnatko provides some strikingly similar thoughts in his Zune review.