Rhapsody.com: sounding the death-knell for DRM?

[Ajani]

http://whathifi.com/News/Rhapsodycom...knell-for-DRM/

Hmmm... more good news on the DRM front... I'm glad to see more online music stores looking to end this DRM stuff...

I think Steve Jobs put it best: it (DRM) only hurt those who wished to download music legally, and didn't affect those using it illegally at all.

[audio_dude]

Other than stuff i'm going to listen to on my stereo, all my music for my iPod comes from BitTorrent.

(So far) Canada does not have anything equivalent to the DMCA, so they can't bust us for downloading music. In fact, we even have/had to pay a levy on iPods because they chance for pirating music was so high. Blank CD's are also charged.

[Ajani]

I'm not suprised they charge levy for piracy there. Back when I was living in Toronto, I was the only person I knew who actually paid for downloads (itunes), all my friends just used things like bittorrent.

DRM needs to die... The stupidest thing about it is that it doesn't even work all that effectively. If you buy a DRM protected song from itunes, all you need to do is burn it to a CD (better yet, burn your whole playlist to CD) and then rip the CD using itunes and you've got DRM free files...

[nightflier]

(So far) Canada does not have anything equivalent to the DMCA, so they can't bust us for downloading music. In fact, we even have/had to pay a levy on iPods because they chance for pirating music was so high. Blank CD's are also charged.

If only that kind of wisdom existed here in the US. Ironically, blank CDs also carry a "piracy tax," but somehow the DMCA has had no desire to pull back from its draconian posturing or labeling grannies and underage children as terrorists.

[Rich-n-Texas]

That kind of wisdom doesn't exist here in the US because of greedy jerks like Lars Ulrich from Metallica. How much more money do these people need?

Does everybody know what HDCP is? Same sh!t, different medium.

[nightflier]

That kind of wisdom doesn't exist here in the US because of greedy jerks like Lars Ulrich from Metallica. How much more money do these people need?

You can add Boner, I mean Bono to that list. And Madona and Dr. Dre, if that's how you roll. I think we're talking about some pretty uneducated musicians who can't think beyond their own interests. I've been boycotting Metallica for years, not that I've been very impressed with their recent stuff anyhow. I now mostly listen to classical music, but on principle I'm pretty disappointed in many of these artists. Ironically, I don't really care for Prince, but I've bought several of his more recent albums just to support him (I also purchased lotsa music from other independent artists, too, but you have to admire what Prince has done on his own - regardless of what kind of pants he choses to wear or... not wear, LOL).

[pixelthis]

REGARDLESS of what you think about DRM, musicians do deserve to get paid.
And hard to beleive but what replaces DRM might actually be worse

Sometimes its better the devil you know...

[Ajani]

REGARDLESS of what you think about DRM, musicians do deserve to get paid.
And hard to beleive but what replaces DRM might actually be worse

Sometimes its better the devil you know...

I 100% agree that musicians deserve to get paid... which is why I pay for all my music... but DRM is just a pain in the @$$ for the people who actually pay for their music... the guys who just download illegally aren't affected by DRM...

There will always be people who have no interest in paying for music... but they were never the ones making musicians money... so the industry needs to be smart enough not to punish the consumers who pay their salaries...

[Rich-n-Texas]

I'm pretty sure all the Metallica stuff I downloaded came from Limewire back a few years ago.

[filecat13]

While it's nice to see DRM slowly fading away, the average consumer doesn't care. It's more about convenience and marketing. That's why the iTunes ecosystem remains successful even with the record industry shoving it up Apple's a$$ and (with one exception) forcing it to continue to sell DRMed music.

Even with their unfair practices and obvious collusion, the music industry morons can't give these loser download services enough of an advantage to overcome their crappy software, clunky sites, and confusing purchasing plans.

I buy 85% of my music off emusic (which gets little help from mainstream music), because 85% of my music is not mainstream. The remaining 15% I get from iTunes (12%) and physical media (3%) such as DVD-A and SACD.

These music industry jack-offs need to stop looking at old Hustlers in a locked office and come into the light of the 21st Century. Then they could see that treating all their partners and customers fairly would actually be a good thing and might give them lasting pleasure.

[Ajani]

While it's nice to see DRM slowly fading away, the average consumer doesn't care. It's more about convenience and marketing. That's why the iTunes ecosystem remains successful even with the record industry shoving it up Apple's a$$ and (with one exception) forcing it to continue to sell DRMed music.

Even with their unfair practices and obvious collusion, the music industry morons can't give these loser download services enough of an advantage to overcome their crappy software, clunky sites, and confusing purchasing plans.

I buy 85% of my music off emusic (which gets little help from mainstream music), because 85% of my music is not mainstream. The remaining 15% I get from iTunes (12%) and physical media (3%) such as DVD-A and SACD.

These music industry jack-offs need to stop looking at old Hustlers in a locked office and come into the light of the 21st Century. Then they could see that treating all their partners and customers fairly would actually be a good thing and might give them lasting pleasure.

I think the music industry fails to realize that they can make lots of money without wasting time and resources on DRM or inflating prices... The current strategy of charge the maximum price for music and attempt to make sure that 100% of consumers pay for music is unrealistic.

MP3s didn't start freeloaders from getting music without paying, it only made it more convenient. Before MP3, people either borrowed and copied their friends' albums or just taped music off the radio.

Charging fair prices, offering high quality downloads and not annoying consumers with 'copyright protection' technology are great ways to expand the market and would probably lead to good profits...

[pixelthis]

While it's nice to see DRM slowly fading away, the average consumer doesn't care. It's more about convenience and marketing. That's why the iTunes ecosystem remains successful even with the record industry shoving it up Apple's a$$ and (with one exception) forcing it to continue to sell DRMed music.

Even with their unfair practices and obvious collusion, the music industry morons can't give these loser download services enough of an advantage to overcome their crappy software, clunky sites, and confusing purchasing plans.

I buy 85% of my music off emusic (which gets little help from mainstream music), because 85% of my music is not mainstream. The remaining 15% I get from iTunes (12%) and physical media (3%) such as DVD-A and SACD.

These music industry jack-offs need to stop looking at old Hustlers in a locked office and come into the light of the 21st Century. Then they could see that treating all their partners and customers fairly would actually be a good thing and might give them lasting pleasure.

Forcing? Ah, yes, more of teh same mythology about Apple being "antiestablishment",
when in reality they are just as much corporate hacks as anybody else.
Heres the reality, DRM in one form or another, its the reality, GET USED TO IT in one way or another.
With improving tech its going to get even harder to get around also.
SELF DESTRUCTING FILES that disapear without a key, 1028 or higher encryption,
embedded tracking software, its the way its gonna be.
There was a brief hiatus while the big boys caught up, well,
they are now CAUGHT UP