I was really iritated by this post by Bob Lefsetz. Essentially, he argued that the reason Amazon and MySpace music shops haven’t taken more market share is that the only people who care about DRM free music are the people stealing music . Peter Kafka at Silicon Alley Reporter, who I usually agree with, seemed to support the view.
I disagree… completely. I don’t steal music (I seem to have a rare ethical bone on this subject) but I hate the fact that iTunes places DRM restrictions on so much music. And there are two important reasons:
- The sound quality of DRM enabled music on itunes is sold at 128kbps which is pretty poor. DRM free songs on itunes are sold at 256 kbps which still isn’t goo enough but definitely better.
- I have a Sonos player and if I buy a DRM protected track I can’t play it on the Sonos without some fiddling which really is annoying.
I love my music and I do buy a lot on iTunes but only if its an iTunes Plus track which really limits my options.
If you take these factors and then include the fact that (legal) digital music is still too expensive as compared to buying a CD at the shops AND that the CD gives you some artwork AND physical backup AND lossless compression, I generally buy most of my music on good ol fashion plastic. Sad but true.
As you can see, there are a number of factors that will get me to switch to buying my music 100% digitally but DRM rights is a major part of them and I am not a music pirate.
The real reason why Amazon and MySpace haven’t gained more traction, despite offering DRM free music, that iTunes has a better product. Certainly, I think that the selection and library management is miles better than anything else I have seen. And so, despite the fact that I pray for the day that apple drops its digital rights restrictions, they still manage to keep my loyalty.
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