Who has more power, the major labels or Apple Computer?
Bottom line, is Apple going to play nice with Sony BMG, are they going to employ/adhere to the copy protection scheme the record label is now using to encrypt its discs.
The backlash is just beginning.
Now Amazon, which doesn't sell a whole hell of a lot of CDs, but which many people use as a reference tool (as is in finding what to download!), now STATES that discs are copy protected, it's not like the label can hide this fact, like they did with Anthony Hamilton.
Then there was last weekend's story in the "Washington Post".
And now people are buzzing about it on the Web. Sony BMG has woken up a sleeping giant, the American public, for whatever burns they're going to eliminate, they're going to pay a much higher price in ill will as a result of this failed scheme. Guess Andy Lack just doesn't know what it's like to be a fan, wanting to take your music EVERYWHERE, not wanting to buy it on disc AND at the iTunes Music Store so it can sit on your iPod.
The iPod. It's a juggernaut. The coolest/must-have device of the teen set. And any baby boomer who doesn't have one is just out of the loop, no one in their circle has one YET. And, when podcasting truly hits, BOY will there be a revolution...music you want to hear, that you can FAST-FORWARD THROUGH! And Apple's got the most seamless solution for that. But, the point here is statistics. The iPod dominates. And is continuing to do so. By not playing with Apple, the labels are demonstrating heretofore unknown hubris. (Then again, they HAVE demonstrated continuing ignorance for the last five years...)
Bottom line, if you use a PC, you cannot import songs from copy protected discs in iTunes, you can't create a file that you can transfer to your iPod, you can only create a copy protected WMA.
Now if you've got an UNPROTECTED WMA, iTunes will convert it into a format the program can read, which you can transfer onto your iPod. (Only with a PC, if you've got a WMA on your Mac, you're fucked.) But, if the WMA is copy protected, you're shit out of luck as an iPod owner.
So, I ask you, are the major labels that powerful, are they such a driving force that they're going to CHANGE THE MARKETPLACE? Drive all music to Microsoft, make Creative the biggest seller of hand-held MP3 players? Can Phil Jackson make the Lakers win the NBA Championship next year? No, can the KANSAS CITY ROYALS WIN THE WORLD SERIES THIS YEAR??
I mean you've got to play in the REAL WORLD!
iPod owners are the MOST dedicated music consumers, they're going to throw out their iPods and purchase inferior players for a couple of hundred bucks? Never going to happen.
So why doesn't Apple just bend. Make iTunes WMA compatible...
Let me ask you, would you give Microsoft, an adjudged monopolist with an over ninety percent share of the desktop market, a LEG UP?? I mean what's the advantage to Apple? They need to make the LABELS happy? It's NOT ABOUT the labels, the iPod doesn't depend on the iTunes Music Store, if you think people are filling up their iPods with AACs they've bought at the iTMS you just can't do the math. They're stealing the music, ripping it...
WHOOPS, you can't rip your CDs anymore. You paid in excess of ten bucks for the disc and you can't put the tunes on your iPod, HOW FUCKING HAPPY ARE YOU GOING TO BE!!
Well, what you're going to do, which is what everybody IS doing if you're paying attention, reading the reports on the Web, is just go online and STEAL the music they paid for. So, Sony BMG is actually DRIVING P2P theft! How fucking nuts is that?
Or, of course, you could have thrown in with the future to begin with. You could be a Mac user. The discs rip just fine in iTunes on a Mac. Which means not only can you burn CDs ad infinitum, you can upload files via P2P services to EVERYBODY! And insiders know it's VERY FEW people who seed the P2P services with the tracks that are traded by millions. Just a couple of Mac users uploading and your goal has been EVISCERATED!
Oh, that's right, Sony BMG's goal is to stop CD burning.
Please, PLEASE Sony, get me to stop using my Mac Plus. Get me to stop using my Smith Corona typewriter.
But my Mac Plus is in the closet. And my Smith Corona typewriter is in the garage. Both essentially worthless.
I've moved to files. The whole WORLD is moving to files. Don't Andy Lack and Michael Smellie have any FRIENDS? Never mind with KIDS? CURSORY field research would tell them they're headed in the wrong direction here.
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