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I'm not quite sure how these stores could survive if they didn't tie in with hardware products, as they are all loss leaders.. Do people really want to pay a higher price just to get their "choice"?

It's very reasonable as far as I am concerned. If you buy something you should be able to play it anywhere you like. Why do you think the companies would have to charge people more if this was the case?

I believe this idea should even be extended to computer components that are not provided with complete specifications on how to access (so that one could write a driver for whatever OS he wants to use it for). After all no one can sell a microwave oven with unlabeled buttons...

Fair enough. Burn the musics to CD (iTMS allows that, I would bet Connect also does) and play anywhere you like.

The current prize structure (where the RIAA gets a much higher percentage than they do from normal CD sales) results in the service providers earning very little, so they mainly use the stores to drive the sales of hardware products. Unless the stores matures to be cash cows themselves this isn't going to change..

I would say that the whole concept of online music stores won't survive very long. Picture this, Joe Bloggs buy an iPod today. He is ecstatic about it. He logs on to iTunes and buys his favourite album for $9.99. He plays the songs the whole of next day, he goes to iTunes, buys another album. He does this every day and spends about $200. Then, one fine day, his iPod's hard drive fails. Apple gives him a new iPod (assuming it is under warranty). But what about the music? Agreed that iTunes lets you use the same songs on three machines, but that is so damn crazy. I mean, today, people thing that an iPod is God's gift to mankind, but one day these things are going to be discarded. That is when people will realise the fallacy of DRM. Ipods are new on the scene. Give them a couple of years and these online music stores will either have to sell non-DRM files or they will have to close down. I guess the RIAA will ensure that the first option does not materialize.

All this is so crazy

The music is still in iTunes and it can still be played on five computers and an unlimited number of iPods. DRM can change over time, and more products are likely to get support (like moto phones, hp iPods etc) so your scenario is a bit;

So, did they sue over the DRM on DVDs?

DRM are not the problem; proprietary solution and autistic attitude are more questionable. DVD protection system is and must be supported by every manufacturer.

BTW, if people are buying tunes on iTunes Music Store in AAC format and then complain about incompatibility with their MP3 player...

If they sue Microsoft and other stores selling WMA files (especially those using the new WM10 DRM), then I'll believe that they have consumer choice in mind.

no! A even lower price + free choice . $0.50 / song should be doable...where does all the money go if an artist just gets 11 cents?

why would they do that? You don't need a special DVD player do play your DVD's and you can play it everywhere and even copy it...

to the rest of the music biz..

Not legally

Look out for RipGuard to be implemented in most commercial DVD's later this year

well, I'd say they have to work a bit more efficiant!

Umm, what a pile of scam that is..

[quote=Busemann,Feb 15 2005, 03:08 PM]
[quote=Jojo,Feb 15 2005, 11:52 AM][quote=negritot,Feb 14 2005, 01:37 PM]So, did they sue over the DRM on DVDs?

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.RipGuard to be implemented in most commercial DVD's later this year

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Macrovision is clearly limited in what they can do and still be compatible with existing hardware players. With VCR copy protection their system depends on the receiving VCR to cooperate (recognize a macrovision code and block recording) with several schemes coded into the VCR from the start so they could put a new system in newly released movies after each old system had been cracked. If you have an old enough VCR, it is immune to all macrovision.

Back to comparing DVD drm to Apple, the fundamental difference is that you can buy any brand DVD player you want, and new companies are free to buy into the system to either produce disks or players.

Yet another DRM related good news: "Napster hack leads to free downloads"

I wonder if this affects the music rental system they just introduced.

Of course you need a "special DVD player." What do you think all the hassle with playing DVDs in Linux was about?

hm ok it seems that tool is a winamp plugin called "Dietmar's Output Stacker", which basically only stores the decoded .wma as .wav, so not removing the drm and not letting you convert from protected .wma to unprotected .wma...