Comments on: Music executives judge Jobs, lament losses

At digital music conference, industry honchos debate what's wrong with their business. At the top of the list: Apple and DRM.

[GoDisplay]

Why Steve Jobs wrote "Thoughts on Music"

I may be wrong, but it seems pretty simple...

Apples faces a lawsuit over DRM - specifically, that content
purchased on iTunes cannot be played on anything other than
computers with iTunes or on iPods. If it weren't for the DRM,
Apple would not be facing this suit, even though the DRM was
part of the deal imposed for the benefit of the record
companies. Now, if Apple goes "on the record" publicly stating
they embrace the elimination DRM, but is legally bound to
impose DRM because of their deal with the record companies,
the argument that Apple intends to do wrong is greatly
diminished. Isn't that the whole point of Jobs' "Thoughts on
Music?" I'd love to hear other opinions on this.

[DraconumPB]

mod parent up.

I think it was pretty obvious that Jobs' statement was a PR move because Apple knows that no matter what, they control the digital music player and store market, and they can say whatever the heck they want to in order to sway opinion of themselves. Apple is not stupid about marketing, but they border sometimes on going a bit too far.

[Thomas, David]

Corporations and Music ... Oh My

I was a music major, my hobby was writing software. That's how
I started out. The corporations, that own the record labels
today, are the SOURCE of every single problem the music
industry faces today.

These corporations know nothing about music, nor do they care.
It ALWAYS amazes me how their is always some crackpot, that
thinks you can quanitify good music with a slider ruler. In a
nut-shell, that is exactly what started this mess when these
corporations bought out the original labels a couple of decades
ago.

Twenty years ago, the inept managed corporations were out
numbered by the music labels. Now, those labels are owned by
greedy, un-imaginative people who are ANYTHING BUT stewards
for the industry.


They have no business in music. They have no contribution to
make in music. Their time is up.

What does this have to do with DRM? It's simple, artist used to
not care that people recorded their work, as long as they didn't
try to resale it. The idea that people liked what you did enough
to keep a copy, meant that were likely to buy what you make
available to them. This worked out fine, because the artists
actually got to see money made from their efforts, even if it was
only a nickel an album. (Not going to get into bad contracts)

However, these corporations view artists as slave labor (this is
why only real successful artist ever break away), they tie them
into contracts, and drain 99.9% of the any money generated by
the artist, away from the artist.

Bottom line, the music "executives" (that IS an oxymoron) are the
root of the problem. They should simply shoot themselves.

[pete anderson]

LITTLE DOG RECORDS

i still make gr-8 records....& i will b allowing downloadind from
my own store in the near future...if what is left of the majors
stopped allowing thier product 2 b downloaded from anywhere
but there own site ...& then played only 30 seconds of the
song..that would b a big help 2 all..but they also have made a
huge mess of the bz...& most have no clue about music &
should not b involved w/ it at all...that will probably come 2 pass
but it mite b 2 late...the only surviviors will b the people that
belong...the ones w/ some talent who r doing it because that is
their life not because it is or was glamorous.....good luck urr
gonna need it...pete anderson

[airwalkery2k]

Kill DRM

Here's how.

Step 1) Stop buying music with DRM.
Step 2) Start buying music from DRM-free sources.

It seems to be working so far. But it should continue.

Emusic is ahead of the game here. Or you can go to a small band's website. You can support an independent band and DRM-free movement at the same time.

[tetsuyo]

Where's the Vision?

When it comes to the quality of music I see this big black hole that has developed between the different generations of music lovers. We all love all different types of music but I do not see the music industry developing and promoting artist in the kind of way that develops a natural transgression of style in sync with the changes of technology.

When I was a kid I started out listening to my fathers extensive jazz collection and then fell in love with classical music then grew to appreciate and like a wide range of artist like jimi hendrix, The Beatles, Peter Frampton,Parliament Funkadelic before jumping into the Disco era and then the becoming an artist/producer myself in the New Wave era when electronic music and PCs first came onto the scene.
From the point of view of a recording artist/music producer the popular rise of the internet was an exciting revolution for me and my peers because we were already deep into using computers and machines in the recording studio. I could see back then that the music industry would change dramatically with the advent of the World Wide Web and was very excited about that. But instead of preparing for that change the music industry got together and fought against it. What a big mistake!

To me it has been a total lack of vision(together with the omnipresent greed) from the leaders of our industry. They failed to see how the internet would change how people access music in the world and they failed to see how the music lover has evolved because of the culture of the World Wide Web. Yet considering that, extravagant images of the "industry life" are heavily pimped to young people in music videos at a time when the economics of the industry are at an all time low. This has gone on for too long and has turned music lovers into a disfunctional family with little common ground.

History has shown us many icons of our popular culture keel over and die because of such lack of vision. On the flipside we have seen one of those icons snapped from the clutches of death by the resurection of its visionary(Steve Jobs.)

So the music industry has not had any kind of fundamental vision for a long long time and thus we are now in some kind of music business dark age. Where reality shows like American Idol become the centerpiece of a music stage that was once the exclusive stomping grounds of a variety of interestingly talented musicians and recording artist/performers.

[fcekuahd]

I'm with you on point 1

I will never buy a DRM track.

I would buy non-DRM tracks, but in order for that to happen, somebody has to come out with something new that doesn't suck.

[amacgeek--2008]

steve's to blame? not!

Excuse me, but it's laughable to think that Steve Jobs is to blame for the music industries wows. I'm sorry, but Steve didn't take hundreds of music lovers to court, the RIAA did on behalf of the music industry. Steve didn't lock down Windows Media files so that they wouldn't play on the Mac. Microsoft did. Steve didn't drop rootkits into everyone's computer, Sony did. Steve didn't charge an arm an a leg for a piece of plastic that costs less than a dollar to make, the music industry did. Steve's not asking you to pay a fee for something you loose access to when you stop, Real Networks did. Steve didn't get people interested in P2P sharing, Napster did. Steve isn't trying to get everyone to pay for a song everytime they want to listen to it, the RIAA does on behalf of the music industry. Steve doesn't sell pirated music for next to nothing, almost every Asian country and parts of Russia do. Steve isn't charging peanuts for all of MP3's, a Russian company did.

No, Steve didn't force anyone to purchase an iPod. Great product design, ease of use, and intelligent marketing did.

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