Amazon Gains Share of Shrinking Paid Music Market

re: Amazon Gains Share of Shrinking Paid Music Market

timiteh — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 08:14:00 GMT

"It's pretty obvious from everything said by Apple and Steve Jobs that they don't like DRM, the ill effects it has on usability and have never felt they needed it to "lock in" people."

You must be kidding right ?

Last time i check Apple is the one of most pro DRM enterprise in the world, if not the most.

This pro-DRM policy help them a lot to insure the dominance of iPod and iTunes no w that they have it, it easy for mr Jobs to ask(with crocodile tears) for the removal of DRM.

I can't understand that so many Apple supporters(and many other people) are so blind about the wrongdoing of Apple while they are the first to bash MS for doing much less.

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re: Amazon Gains Share of Shrinking Paid Music Market

MaryW — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 00:33:00 GMT

@Paul

"This proves the lock-in accusations about Apple are correct.... "

Does it? Seems to me that it proves that bloggers can take any published report and give it a little twist so that it can be made to substantiate their own pre-existing pet theories.

The report mostly mentions iTunes having a different audience... with different buying habits. Sure it talks about the restrictions encountered with iTunes remaining DRM library, but then goes on to say that ...... "most users simply don’t care".

Sounds like a lot of iTunes users don't belong to your "lock-in accusations" demographic.

@Paul

"The problem I have with iTunes content, however, has little to do with lock-in, though it's a concern."

Oh Paul! Do I detect a little itsy-bitsy...... LIE! (I am using the Thurrott/Apple definition of the word. ;)

From your old Nexus blog: "Apple should be stopped before the abuses get too great and harm too many consumers"

Am I wrong in assuming that you wanted the DOJ to intervene just to force Apple to up the sound quality of their music files? No. That was all about Apple's sinister plans to abuse, deceive and obtain money with menaces from innocent consumers.

There is no iTunes/iPod lock-in!

Still reading? Good. Actually I lied. There is a lock-in.... however:

The record companies created this lock-in.

Apparently Apple didn't want this "strategy".

With Job's open letter and the EMI deal they appeared to want it even less.

The music biz is perpetuating the lock-in by denying Apple un-locked-in content.

Jupiter research said that 83% of iPod owners do NOT buy digital music regularly.

Even the NPD report you link to confirms that either a lot of folk don't buy much digital music...

.....or everyone only buys a little

Mac using iPod owners had very little choice in players/software/online stores. (until recently)

Any tech savvy people could disrobe the tracks of Apple's DRM if they wanted to switch players.

Non tech savvy folk could go the burn to CD method.

One more time...."most users simply don’t care".

So we are left with a small percentage (10 or 12 percent?) of iPods sold because unsuspecting consumers have been cruelly tricked into buying iPod after iPod after iPod.... in order to listen to their iTunes purchased libraries. Presumably these poor saps were not forced by Steve's goons to buy their first iPod.... so that percentage drops by (at least) half to around 5%.

So there we have it. Apple's "brilliant and effective" master plan may have resulted in a 5% increase in iPod sales. Come on Steve! You are evil. You should be making meeellllions.

re: Amazon Gains Share of Shrinking Paid Music Market

lotsamystuff — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 05:43:25 GMT

Why is eMusic never mentioned in these stories? Oh, that's right. The big labels consider them irrelevant, even though they probably outsell Amazon.

Come on, Paul. Do a few minutes of research and let us know.

re: Amazon Gains Share of Shrinking Paid Music Market

Snakedoctor1 — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 03:47:26 GMT

Ahh this kind of blog post will ignite a few fires here.

From where I sit, 99% of my friends family have iPods. The same 99% if they are going to buy new music do it via iTunes and 90% of the time they buy single tracks, and rarely do they purchase a full CD's worth of music. 75% probably have some kind of device they jack their iPod into for playing the music for everone, Bose dock, Altec Lansing, whole house system, main stereo system, car etc. I would say 50% of them have multiple devices. My wife has a speaker system in the kitchen (Altec Lansing) and a cradle in her car. We never use a CD player in the house or car anymore.

100% of those friends and family dont care about 128bit vs 256bit, DRM or any of that stuff. They are joe users straight up. To them, all portable media players are iPods.

Amazon will make money, but they will never catch iTunes. Joe User does not go outside of the iPod/iTunes package, and honestly why should they it works and works well. Its totally consumer focused. Unlike say the Zune and "Microsoft Points????

The 3rd party hardware support is 99% iPod. The music companies are STUPID if they dont let Apple do the same and sell DRM free songs...STUPID. I mean is their ego bigger than the profits they would make???

Only Apple can do something to break the iPod/iTunes lock, and that would have to be something so crazy stupid on their part. With the iPhone and iPod touch it does not look like they are going to do something dumb.

In fact I predict that once the iPhone gets 3G and the Exchange server support update in June, Windows Mobile better look out. Apple wont be able to make enough of them.

re: Amazon Gains Share of Shrinking Paid Music Market

gorath — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 22:05:47 GMT

Well, being an employee of a smaller record company which has almost all it's content on i-tunes, I can let you know from the horse's mouth that Apple refused to let music be put on i-tunes without DRM. This was purely an Apple decision.

Many smaller labels depend upon word-of-mouth for the majority of their publicity, and are willing to suffer a few "shared" songs floating about, if it increases market visibility and hype.

As for Microsoft trying to poison the market, as far as I understand the situation, they offered to pay the record labels a small share of the hardware cost, to offset the losses due to a proposed sharing ability of the zune.

re: Amazon Gains Share of Shrinking Paid Music Market

johnpapola — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 21:52:38 GMT

My reply was a little out of order. The bulk of my reply wasn't about WGA and the HD DRM. It was about the MS drm product strategy. I'll admit that saying DRM "underpins Windows" is perhaps a hyperbolic snipe. WGA does suck though.

With regard to Steve. He's a businessman. He's interested in whatever is good for his business. I have no illusions about that. But Steve's business ethic is certainly more product and consumer focused than Gates ever was. Steve sweats the user experience and fights for it. He fights for lower pricing in media and easy to use purchasing. He stares down the labels on DRM even as his store is already number 1.

Where as Microsoft has always seemed more willing to accept the raw deal from the content companies and pass it off to the consumer. Or they just try to rip people off with carnival-ticket-style schemes like "Microsoft points" that aren't a 1 to 1 dollar ratio and must be bought in bulk. Or they give Universal a share of the Zune hardware revenue in an obvious effort to poison the market.

Honestly, I think playsforsure was a great idea in theory. I don't fault them for the effort, even though I'm certain it was designed as a moat strategy to lock people further into Windows. They final appear to be abandoning that lock-in with Silverlight. I just fault how MS appears to be willing to sell out consumers for content company interests.

re: Amazon Gains Share of Shrinking Paid Music Market

Dipsh t Admin — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 20:50:03 GMT

"I'm not referring to WGA" and "It's even underpinning Windows" really don't jive with one another. First you say that it's the DRM inherent in Windows, now you are saying it's not. Which one is it?

And certainly MS didn't hatch DRM out of thin air. Content owners and the RIAA and MPAA, who of course are the true evil doers, demanded such a product. Rather than locking people in to one device, MS attempted to standardize it so that anyone could license the technology to partners, whom could therefore provide the content that they wanted to and still have the protections that the DRM-pushers wanted. Of course, since the realities of the computer industry are such that it is, this did not work out, and of course could never work out, as Stevey himself correctly stated.

"I don't think anyone can honestly disagree."

I don't think I could say that or not. However, from the tone of your comment, it is obvious that you feel that Stevey only does what is best for the consumers. That is of course patently false. I don't think anyone can honestly disagree. ;)

re: Amazon Gains Share of Shrinking Paid Music Market

johnpapola — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 20:33:12 GMT

Dipst,

I'm not referring to WGA or the protected pathway for HD media. I'm talking about the fact that Microsoft's DRM platform is a product that they have developed and championed on it's own. Microsoft has gone out and said to content companies "look at the great DRM we've got for you!! It's awesome DRM! The best out there!!"

Apple went out and said, look at this awesome music solution we've built. It all works. It's the best. We'd rather not hamper it with DRM. And were forced to add DRM.

I remember seeing a clip with Ballmer himself using those kind of words. DRM is a product for MS. I'm saying this is "bad" or "wrong". I'm saying that MS had developed a strategy of pushing DRM to the people that want to use it where Apple has clearly always disliked it and has pushed for it's elimination wherever feasible.

If Microsoft had Apple's share of the music market, I would bet every mac I own that Gates or Ballmer would never have written "Thoughts on Music" calling for the end of DRM as Jobs did last year. I don't think anyone can honestly disagree.

re: Amazon Gains Share of Shrinking Paid Music Market

Dipsh t Admin — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 18:54:13 GMT

"Now THOSE guys actually love the stuff. It's even underpinning Windows."

So, John, "is that a lie, or simply a false and ill-informed accusation?"

There is no such thing (DRM in Windows), at least not in the way that you are interpreting it and presenting it. Blu-Ray, HD DVD (RIP), CableCard? Yes, Everything else? No.

Read here:

blogs.zdnet.com/Bott

As Paul would say, "you gotta love Ed Bott, seriously!"

re: Amazon Gains Share of Shrinking Paid Music Market

BrightrevCarl — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 18:25:32 GMT

I have an iPod and Windows Media Center, so I HAVE to use MP3s if I want to use the same music on both. I also don't like the idea of some company dictating where I can play stuff I paid money to buy. I think the Amazon MP3 store is absolutely GREAT. Portability is MUCH more important to me than quality (and I have no interest in giving media to anyone else).

Also, I guess my hearing isn't very good or my speakers are really cheap, because I can't tell which tracks in my library were originally a 128 Kbps AAC and which are 256 Kbps MP3s.

re: Amazon Gains Share of Shrinking Paid Music Market

cesjr — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 17:58:21 GMT

johnpapola -

Of course Paul know about that rolling stone article. But part of what Paul does is just ignore facts that conflict with his world view.

re: Amazon Gains Share of Shrinking Paid Music Market

johnpapola — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 17:29:14 GMT

Paul,

"Apple only "wanted" to offer DRM-free tracks once its iPod/iTunes dominance was secured."

Now, is that a lie, or simply a false and ill-informed accusation?

I'll be generous and assume the later. So, since you often conflate "Apple" the company with "Steve Jobs" the man, let me direct you to this 2003 article in Rolling Stone where mr. Jobs spells out how he thought DRM was pointless and futile and was only including it because the labels demanded it.

www.rollingstone.com/.../steve_jobs_the_rolling_stone_interview

Money quote:

"When we first went to talk to these record companies -- you know, it was a while ago. It took us 18 months. And at first we said: None of this technology that you're talking about's gonna work. We have Ph.D.'s here, that know the stuff cold, and we don't believe it's possible to protect digital content." - SJ 2003

It's pretty obvious from everything said by Apple and Steve Jobs that they don't like DRM, the ill effects it has on usability and have never felt they needed it to "lock in" people.

Paul, I think you've sat through too many Win DRM pep-rallys at Microsoft. Now THOSE guys actually love the stuff. It's even underpinning Windows.

re: Amazon Gains Share of Shrinking Paid Music Market

Ocean — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 17:03:57 GMT

Paul,

What MP3 player on the market today doesn't play AAC?

They all do. Even the MP3 enabled car radios play AAC.

Please stop spreading this untruth.

re: Amazon Gains Share of Shrinking Paid Music Market

Ocean — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 17:01:55 GMT

I guess my point is that its a package deal. The lock-in includes what you call the 'low quality' files...but the users keep buying them.

Doesn't that say that the users don't see them as low quality? To them, the lock in is no big deal, the quality of the files is no big deal.

The truth is in the numbers. The numbers say 'not a problem'.