Archive for March, 2006
Vive le iTunes
23 March 2006Just had to comment about this whole France-tries-to-take-on-iTunes issue.
I was a Napster user. I was one of the ones kicked off by Metallica. (No hard feelings–not any more.) I was also one of the sneaky devils who got back on using a quippy “Metallica bites!”-derived username. I used Morpheus and Kazaa and Limewire, and tried eMule and some others. I was a pirate, and I felt justified… I didn’t like the idea of having to buy a full $15 CD for one or two good songs, and since there was no viable alternative, I’d download illegal copies as a form of symbolic speech: “Fuck you, RIAA.”
Apple changed that. While the RIAA was still spending millions attempting to prosecute smalltime pirates not unlike myself (which, I guess they still do, right?), Apple came along with a business model that I loved and the music industry, despite their many levels of stupidity, could get behind. 99¢ per song. Don’t want a whole CD? Don’t buy it. Forget the sleek elegance of the iPod, the ease of use of iTunes as music store/jukebox and all that (albeit true) marketing hype. I was sold on, and my loyalty to Apple continues to be based on the fact that they came up with a viable business solution when nobody else would or could. Now, yes, I own an iPod, though it took me long enough. Anyhow, of the 420-ish tracks on the player (not counting the podcasts), 84 of them are iTunes purchases. And they’re among the highest ranked songs in my library, because I was able to pick out just the songs I wanted. (The whole wheat/chaff thing.)
So I guess it’s not surprising that I get defensive when I read an argument like this:
“I am probably not the only one to use iTunes on my PC even though I don’t have an iPod (I use my phone, and MP3 CD player in the car). For ripping my CDs, all works fine - I knew nothing of this DRM thingie, so when I first bought, yes PAID FOR some tracks off iTunes, how annoyed was I when I discoverered I could not play them on anything but the PC! It’s certainly made me not want to spend any more money with Apple - and that includes not buying an iPod - I’m not falling for that! I now want to go search for this ‘unlocking’ device to free up my music which is being held hostage by DRM. My point being, get rid of DRM and I will buy legit music again.”
I’d reply to the guy directly, but the originating site is having registration issues, so I had to vent here. Allow me to not mince words in my quasi-reply: “Don’t want DRM? Go buy a fucking CD, ass.” Why do people want an iTunes-like solution? Because they don’t want to buy ten songs they’ll never listen to, and a case that’ll only collect dust. iTunes cuts the fat out of the music business model, and the DRM restrictions are a reasonable trade-off, as far as I’m concerned.