Do the Real Math
Posted on | April 16, 2008 at 7:30 pm | 2 Comments
This news saddens me: Amazon DRM-Free Music Has Little Impact On Apple iTunes. I guess people just don’t care about DRM-Free music.
“DRM stands for ‘doesn’t really matter,’ ” Crupnick said. “The vast majority of people don’t experience DRM [problems]. The iPod and iTunes work great together, so none of that really bothers consumers that much.”
That’s all fine and dandy now, but what happens when people want to put their songs on some non-Apple player? Or they go through more than five computers? Or experience any of the other headaches that DRM can cause? Then they’ll learn.
I’m much more inclined to use Amazon these days, not just for the DRM-Free files, but also because they’re often cheaper. Yeah, their selection isn’t as good, but it’s getting better.
I don’t think the market has finished speaking yet though. Amazon hasn’t been in this biz for long. Let’s see how it plays out over the long run.
Latre.
Jogged Today: Yes (@ 43°F)
Songs That Came Up On The iPod While Jogging:
- “Believe That I Understand” (Magazine)
- “Autumn Soon” (The Church)
- “Silver” (Echo & the Bunnymen)
- “Unzip” (Cinerama)
- “Hammer Back” (Blue Öyster Cult)
- “Sign The Air” (From Bubblegum To Sky)
|
Pet Peeve of the Day: Snow in April, one day after the temp was in the 80s. |
Poignant Search Term Of The Day That Led To This Blog: “phobia fear of unattached hair”.
Favorite Search Term Of The Day That Led To This Blog: “proper way to end a conversation”.
Comments
2 Responses to “Do the Real Math”
April 16th, 2008 @ 8:57 pm
Your last point is key: I’m willing to bet huge numbers of people aren’t even aware Amazon has MP3s yet. I know about it…but in fact, a couple of times I’ve forgotten to check it first and did the iTunes thing out of sheer habit.
Also: in order to measure effect/no effect, we need a baseline. Presumably, Amazon is selling some MP3s, right? But if iTunes shows no slacking off in sales, does that mean Amazon has no effect or merely that the market for MP3 purchases is still increasing, and Amazon’s presence hasn’t yet saturated that market?
Also: the iTunes DRM thing is pretty much crap anyway. Everyone knows that all you need to do is burn a CD-R full of supposedly protected tunes, and then rip the songs from that CD-R: voila, DRM-free tracks in whatever format you’ve chosen to rip them in. As for the “five computers” thing: I think it’s unlikely that people are going to have more than five computers simultaneously, and if you get rid of an old one and buy a new one, deauthorize the old one before you authorize the new one. I mean, sure, this is difficult for the sort of folks who never mastered setting the time on their VCRs…but that isn’t you or me, is it?
April 17th, 2008 @ 5:19 pm
Dang, Rogj, mollify!