Alex Hardy

Here’s hoping some real competition has arrived in the music downloads market with Amazon MP3 (in US-only public beta). It may be another nail in the coffin of DRM. I’ve bought a few tracks on iTunes, but I buy albums on CD because of DRM.

I want to own my music. I won’t join a subscription service like the late Virgin Digital. As for people who don’t want to pay: are you listening record labels?

Your music can NEVER be cheap enough for people who don’t want to pay at all. They will ALWAYS find ways to circumvent your DRM. You ONLY inconvenience your legitimate customers.

Apple have too much power right now, and their “my way or the highway” attitude may come back to bite them. I hope it does because a) getting too involved in rights management red tape distracts from making slick devices and b) it leads to mean spirited moves like preventing a previously bought game working on your new iPod.

I’m looking forward to Amazon MP3 rolling out in the UK. Their prices appear to be competitive, and they provide a Mac OS X download client. Hurrah!

Posted on Tuesday, September 25th, 2007 at 1:41 pm under Random. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.