Comments on: Does the mainstream care about DRM?

Nowhere is the nonchalance more apparent than in iTunes sales figures. As Apple looks into going DRM-free, consumers should learn that copy protection is damaging to them and artists.

Excellent article and excellent point. Even the "extra step" you mention from purchasing from Amazon isn't necessary. Amazon's MP3 downloader automatically downloads AND adds the song directly into iTunes including Album art.

In my area (NE Ohio), working as an independent tech consultant, I find that most home users don't even know about Amazon's MP3 store.

[AnthonyNYC]

I haven't bought any new music from iTunes since I filled it last year but thanks for info on amazon mp3, I will use it in future when i need new music. But having 2000 songs and radio, I hardly need to pay for new music any more.
They need to realize this curve in sales as people fill the ipods and no long buy music after a point.
:)

[karpenterskids]

AMEN.

I couldn't have said it better myself.
Great article, man.

(And down with the RIAA!!!)

[davidwb45011]

Apple has a well deserved reputation for designing systems that 'just work' and the iTunes Store, iTunes software, and iPod all work together so seamlessly that the typical user probably doesn't get his nose rubbed into the awful truth about DRM. But buy a different mp3 player, try to stream your iTunes music through a game console, or buy/use more than 5 computers and the truth becomes obvious. And now, it appears, the new Mac notebooks have an additional DRM 'sack of badness' - HD movie and TV content won't run if there's an 'analog leak' in your system. I think Apple's free DRM pass is about to expire.

[Lerianis]

You're joking? HD movie and TV content just plain and simple, won't run! Yeah, that's going to get Apple big time.

[rnaoncfixd]

@Lerianis:

HD and TV content will run, just not on any old projectors or analog devices that don't send back a certain signal. Nearly all of the items currently on the market will play them.

[Penguinisto]

Heya Don?

You do realize that the iTunes music store also sells DRM-less tracks, right?

/P

[Lerianis]

Only SOME of them are DRM-less. Many of them still have DRM in them, and there are ALLLLLLLLL the ones that they sold before going non-DRM that they will not allow people to convert from DRM'ed to non-DRM'ed tracks.

[dascha1]

Actually, and I'm honest when I say this... I don't have time to search for or download music anymore. I'd rather sit down at my baby (and I mean baby) grand and play a Song of the Season or South. I find it a lot more relaxing, soothing, and keeps my fingering on the keys in touch.

Good luck with this, you should work in DC!

[DigitalFrog]

it's a little hard to put a baby grand in your pocket to listen to during the commute to work though, isn't it?

[dascha1]

Funny you put it that way, my wife just said the same thing not too long ago. So, I drive it to work instead.

[dragonbite]

I'm waiting for one of the Linux music players to add this iTunes-like ease with Amazon instead of the iTunes store.

[Penguinisto]

That's easy - gtkpod and/or Amarok... then you can couple it all with your existing iPod.

[dragonbite]

I meant purchasing and downloading aspect.

[hawaiiinsomniac]

I buy 75% of my media from iTunes, not because of DRM or whatever else, but because eBay sells iTunes gift cards for 1/2 price. The rest I buy directly from my iPhone.

[gerrrg]

Uhm. I like alternative music, not pop and mainstream...so I get my bundles of drm-free mp3s from emusic, and for a quarter the price of itunes / amazon. Although, I do wish they had FLAC as an option (including paying more for them).

And to answer the question...no one should be surprised that most people are either ignorant or unconcerned about drm. After all, most people need help defragging their computers and couldn't name the three branches of federal government.

Most people just don't care, until something affects them personally, in a direct way.

[blariz]

Maybe this my comment is slightly off topic, or maybe not -
To the point about how easy the iTunes store works in conjunction with the iTunes software and the iPod, you can't deny that.
BUT once the average mainstream consumer has a hard drive failure, or buys a new computer, or outgrows their primary hard drive space and wants/needs to move their iTunes library, then that is where the simplicity of iTunes and DRM seem to fall short.
In the world of MP3's (either ripped or purchased from someplace like AmazonMP3, any of the situations listed above are merely as simple as copying the folder or folders with the MP3's to a new hard drive, thumbdrive, or different computer and pointing your music player of choice (iTunes, Real, Winamp, WMP, etc) to the new location of the folder(s) and you are done.
Granted it is not an impossible task but it could happen to every mainstream iTunes library fan at some point in time and then the discussion about how easy iTunes is, suddenly becomes less easy.

[FellowConspirator]

Most users don't know about and don't care about DRM (draconian restrictions on media) until they get burned by it. The moment day they replace their music player, buy from a new online service, or even pop-in a movie and it gives some obtuse message about why it won't work, then they have an epiphany. "Fair-Use Circumvention Kit!" Er, well, they usually use the more popular acronym... But they only need to get bitten once before the whole industry are recognized as "Mother Fair Use Circumvention Kit'ers" (that's "Motherf***ers" in the popular vernacular).

Music DRM pisses people off already, but HDCP is poised to open up a whole new world of hate for the media industry. Just like how region codes give the proverbial shaft to travelers, multinationals, students, film buffs, and art film types, HDCP introduces a whole new era of simple consumer consumer electronics actively thwarting legitimate access to legitimately obtained and used media. Why would people invest in a region-locked HDCP aware BluRay player if it means that they can't watch most of the world's movies, and there's a risk that it will outright refuse to work with your TV or computer. The answer is, they don't.

We're coming to an era where accessing commercially produced content is a sufficiently high purchase risk that you simply have to say no. They'll sell it to you, but you can't know if you can actually view it until you try. The only way to obtain content that you know you access: get it form a pirate. It maybe illegal, even if you've got a license to access the work, but it's becoming the only way you're going to get at the content so as to use it.

[AnthonyNYC]

I can't stand HDCP, every time I turn tv off and on the cable box fights with HDTV to allow it to view programming over HDMI (digital connection), it got so fustrating, i bypassed it and use RGB analog HD connections all because HDCP is so inconvenient, when people realize in future they can no longer view HD programming over any connection to tv other than HDCP DRM HDMI digital input, and only one tv at a time!
People will literally go nuts and revolt by supporting bootleg technology and breaking DRM will become accepted as mainstream practise. They brought the downfall on themselves I believe with hardware DRM, it will backfire in my opinion.

[AnthonyNYC]

I should have mentioned the problem with HDCP and all digital video DRM is it should be transparant, but it isn't currently because it causes so much grief to people trying to watch legal programming that is being corrupted by hardware incompatibility issues all caused by the new DRM schemes.
Example, 2 own 2 tv sets, one in kitchen and one in livingroom, you want them both to view the identical programming at the same time, so you can walk back and forth while cooking and not miss your playing programming. It is impossible with the new HDCP scheme, as it only allows one tv set to access a copy protected HD program playing currently, the second set, shows a warning about HDCP capable set etc...
This is rediculous in 2008, to slow progress and technology with this irrational fear and include DRM to cause such incompatibilities for consumers.

[eBob1]

It is true that most consumers don't care about DRM until it bites them. Interesting that this article shows up on the same day as reports of problems with new Macs being crippled with HDCP.

[lixpaulian]

Buy from Amazon? That would be cool. However, you tend to forget that for now Amazon sells music to residents of USA and Canada only, while iTunes has a much larger international audience.

However, I agree with the basic idea of the article; all I bought from iTunes was DRM free music (I'm located in Austria, Europe).

[G_Slade]

Tip of the hat to Mr Reisinger for another excellent article. But dont just stop at DRM, i believe that the success of the ipod is due to the ignorance of the mainstream consumer. How many superior mp3 players have come and gone throughout the last 5 years? it seems that only in recent years have people realised that there are portable players out there other than apples offerings.
We may be seeing the beginning of the end of DRM music, but what about DRM games and films? only when the mainstream consumer realises the limitations of DRM will we see the last of it.

[Vurk]

How exactly are other players better? Because they have a radio tuner? People buy Ipods so they *dont* have to listen to scratchy, static-filled radio that has nothing to offer.
If radio were *still* the killer app, people wouldnt be buying portable music players.

[mactx]

Mainstream does not care nor give DRM a moment?s thought, only techies do. This is apparent by the success of iTunes and the DRM free outcries by the techies. Going fully DRM free on iTunes will more likely serve to satisfy the vocal tech savvy minority than it will the relatively silent mainstream.

[donsms]

Tech people are no different then the ordinary Joe out in the world.No matter what they say about being responsible about the things they buy and use,they still purchase all the cool tech toys to stay with the crowd.Who cares about DRM,and that most of the old electronic items we supposedly recycle end up in a dump in some unknown corner of China.Look in the mirror folks,your no different then all the other people you say are clueless.

[CrashPad63]

Zune Baby.... Zune!!!!! All else pales. 70% of their 3+ million catalouge is DRM free and now with the subscription service offering 10 free and clear tracks each month of your service that part of the platform is even better. Itunes is so bloated and overdone you cant even negotiate the discovery of new material.
Remember ZUNE!!!!! A revolution from the outside in.

[fdunn3]

Yes Apple has sold billions of DRM laden content via their iTunes and when Apple decides to pull the plug on the DRM licensing and people need to recover their DRM for their Gigs on content just like MSN, Walmart it will be a bit more of a problem.

[deadnietzsche]

I think one of the problems is that people are attacking a system that works as a whole inseparable experience (iPod, iTunes, Music Store). It may be cheaper to buy on Amazon, but it is nowhere near as convenient when you want to load them into your iTunes library (and don't get me started about not everything is very well sorted or labeled)

Honestly, I think that a good Music Store competitor would, for one, actually browse different stores (whether DRM-free or not, depending on which player you use) and allow you to compare prices. And integrate the whole thing into the actual payer's program and you just might have a shot.