Don't know if anyone's seen this yet elsewhere, but Steve Jobs himself has come out and posted a message straight on the Apple.com page about his thoughts on music and DRM.

In the article he says that Apple (ajnd the indstry) have three ways going forward -

• 1) Each manufacturer continues to sell music with their own DRM, giving rise to universes worth of incompatibility;
• 2) Apple licenses FairPlay, which he believes will result in FairPlay being cracked, and so concludes that Apple will never license FairPlay; and
• 3) Sell DRM-free music (like the Yahoo! trial) - clearly his preference. He notes that many more DRM-free songs are sold by the music comanies themselves than DRM songs are sold by online vendors.

He also emphasises that the iPod itself was always designed to play DRM-free music, and the fallacy used by critics that the iPod locks you into buying DRM music from iTS only, rather than being able to fill it up with your own licensed content off your CDs.

Looks like the Apple Corps trade agreement has given Steve some confidence - perhaps the Beatles have agreed to jump on board as the pilot group for the new DRM-free iTS? He might also have gotten his voice back due to the continuing Norwegian crusade against FairPlay, and he notes that Universal and EMI are European-based, and consumers should be looking to persuade them to license DRM-free music rather than haranguing Apple for something they can't control.

He seems to be having a shot at both Microsoft for its Zune universe, and the industry for continuing to insist on DRM - which Apple tends to get blamed for, and which is often hauled out by the haters and critics as a reason for avoiding the iPod. Also, these comments must also be pointed at Hollywood, given that they've finally opened up to Amazon and Walmart and have no reason to hold back off iTunes now.

Fascinating - I never thought Steve would join the world of blogging. He must appreciate that his audience is massive, and that the media will pick this up and run with it like the word of God. And finally an insight into Apple's beyond the traditional road map / intentions without the usual 'we don't comment on unannounced products'.

What do you reckon?

bravo steve.

that is definitely going to ruffle some feathers at "the big four" companies!

it's about time someone who carries so much weight in the industry spoke out against DRM. I do like how he turned the tables on the European nations that are currently, and have in the past, turned against Apple and iTunes placing the DRM blame squarely on them. Damn right we should be bombarding the record companies with that kind of protest instead of making a token gesture by way of blaming Apple for it all.

I've never seen Steve do anything like this before - how interesting!

Now that I've read the article, I can say that I'm not surprised Apple wants to go down the non-DRM route. They just want to provide a good experience to go with their hardware, DRM is not a good experience.

I wonder if the record companies would ever go DRM free though. A few indie labels I know would, but would Apple allow DRM for some albums and no DRM for others? What about Apple actually being the record company now, bypass those greedy fuckers and give the artist the entire cut (with a fair amount of profit for Apple for providing the service). Integrate it into Garageband/Logic - provide a "Sell on iTunes Store", enter a contract, and sell. It would revolutionise how the music industry works.

Also, would having it DRM free allow alllll the songs globally on the iTunes store to be available to everyone? e.g: there's just 1 single store, not the 20 or so that exist now for each country. You may view localised content for your part of the world, but when you search, you're searching the entire global catalouge (downloading high quality Japanese & Swedish alternative music - I'd sure as shit pay for that).

I suspect not - the licensing issues remain, regardless of whether or not the song is laced with DRM or not.

However, in theory nothing would stop you from downloading from the iTS in other countries; or, if there still were restrictions on access to foreign iTS's, then you could always get someone else to buy them for you and send them through to you - technically illegal / in breach of the licence, I would suspect, but in practice no different from buying a CD from overseas.

Whther you buy from iTMS or buy the physical CD, once its ripped into iTunes (the second you get home from the CD Store) both sets of music are just as easily sent around / shared.

DRM is a waste of time. If people want to copy and share music they will. The popularity of the internet can send it faster and further than in the days of Cassettes but it still happens,


Steve

Being non-DRM doesn't affect Apple's bottom line negatively like it possibly would with the music companies.
It really looks like a quandary for all the companies to ressolve.
Jobs writes: If such (DRM) requirements were removed, the music industry might experience an influx of new companies willing to invest in innovative new stores and players.
The music industry needs some real creative types so they can think outside the DRM model.

Its sad but true, technically, it's illegal to purchase tv shows which will never be seen on tv here in australia... (unless you subscribe to *shudder* foxtel)

Not necessarily illegal, but whether you're entitled to watch / use it or not depends on the specific licence for the product - something which most consumer products don't exactly have attached to them through the supply chain.

In which case, if all legitimate and commercial means of getting to watch good television are stymied or unduly delayed by our local monopolies, then why not go the whole hog and subscribe to channel BT (hypotheticallly, of course)?

Hypothetically *taps nose*


Back to topic though, I thought that was a very interesting read. And I honestly do hope that they remove DRM (they as in the companies/labels)

Ballsy letter/speech. I like it.

Yes, bravo Steve.

I'm sure this article will cause a huge stir in the press and the music industry. I wonder if the Big Four (no not Big4 caravan parks ) will come back with some type of threat toward Apple because of it?

B4: Take back that statement!
SJ: No!
B4: Take it back!
SJ: You can't make me!
B4: Yes we can!
SJ: No you can't!
B4: We hate you. You're not our friend anymore.
SJ: Too bad 'cos now you don't have any friends. Everyone hates you!
B4: Go away.
SJ: Aw, boo hoo. Poor babies.

Well Bronfman of Universal loves saying how iPod owners are largely thieves, how the record companies are subsidizing the iPod and need to 'monetise' their investments by claiming revenue from iPod (and Zune) sales.

(More) Money for nothing - gotta love the monopoly we're in.

Something tells me Steve would tell Universal (and the others) to go shove it, if they asked for the Zune deal to be put on iPods. And the press and consumers would be right behind him... wielding baseball bats and chains .

Well, that is all fine and dandy for Steve to go on about DRM. If DRM is not a problem Steve, why not remove the restrictions from Mac OSX to allow it to run on generic PCs? People should be allowed to run their choice of OS on whatever computer they want :-) While you are at it, why not remove the restrictions on Final Cut, so I can run it on more than one machine at home. I mean, I paid for it, so I should be able to run it on multiple machines. I can do that with a DRM-free CD of music, why not with software?

I think his statement is just trying to take the heat out of the growing iTS problem in Europe. If it were just Norway, then I'm sure Apple would deal with it one way or another. But other european countries are jumping in too, such as France and Germany (notice they were the two countries he singled out where the headquarters of music companies were).

To be honest, I think Steve is a little scared. He has built up a market monopoly in music players with the iPod, and starting to make inroads with video and movies (maybe this hoohar is behind the lack of video content outside the US on iTS?). Microsoft will swoop if it starts to crumble, with their corporate-friendly DRM. This is his way of putting the ball back in their court :-) When cornered, go public!

Lavo: Mac OS X is entirely different to music. You only have to look at the mess Windows is in to see why it's good that it's restricted to just Apple's computers.

That being said, the sudden blog was a shock. I hope that more of Apple's employees start blogging and Steve continues. It's this kind of thing that makes companies more interesting and personal.