March 16, 2005
“it’s like watching the buggy whip industry getting a whip made mandatory for every car”
Brilliant article from Hamish:
Would You Like to Buy A Soviet Photocopier, Tsovarich?
Want something that even Stalin wouldn7 Responses to ““it’s like watching the buggy whip industry getting a whip made mandatory for every car””
I use to know people that would flaunt all the sony gear the could afford. Now they flaunt all the Apple gear they can afford.
Apple will go the way Sony has if they dont get smarter about their conversation.
I use to love my iPod. Now I hate fucking iTunes.
Frankly, “Apple is good because they’re Apple” doesn’t cut it anymore. They have good products, (almost-)monopolies here and there (music players, online music stores, and unix-based workstations, perhaps), but we may look at ourselves years, maybe months from now and think “hah, iPods, remember when we used to wear and worship those like they were the second coming”? White plastic and brushed metal is just waiting for something else to come up to lose its hip factor.
And what are you going to do with the music you bought when you want to sell your old iPod and get something from the next big fashion wave that doesn’t use Apple’s DRM?
Good question, indeed.
I’m firmly on the side of no DRM and finding alternate means of distribution and monetization, but Hamish is a few months late with this.
Sony has enabled its players to read DRM-free MP3s for a little while now, after seeing that they weren’t making a dent in Apple’s marketshare.
So while the end-to-end experience is not yet on par with Apple (which is the real strength of the iPod), the technical issue of DRM is at least somewhat mitigated.
If you do buy tracks through Sony’s Connect service, they are ATRAC3s, just as when you buy tracks through iTunes, they are AACs.
Personally, I’m thinking of buying my music in Russia (allofmp3.com).
Hi Adi
You’re right, the Sony stuff is not hot off the press, but the generally trend stuff is still more or less on track. As for AllofMP3.com, joined recently, and it’s GOOD. Still slightly nervous about having my credit card details floating about in Russia, but so far so good. I’ve gotten about 218 files at absolute top quality for about 45 bucks.
I’m a proponent of user choice and flexibility.
I’ll think about a better answer. That’s a long article.
The Pc is the perfect copying machine — all DRM attempts to defeat that perfection. In the end DRM will fail and with it will fail a great many business models because, in the end, the people who cannot avoid making music will always do so and will always get a live gig if they are any good, the hangers on with no talent except the ability to “monitize” (a disgusting word!) someone elses talent will disappear. But first they will attempt to use the law to solve a technological problem and that will cause everybody a huge amount of grief.
Books & Links
1. A New Brand World by Scott Bedbury — This book changed my life. Former CMO and CBO at Nike (during the creation of Ju