Steve Jobs Speaks Out
I don't like DRM (aka FairPlay) and never have. I even wrote about a few weeks ago - here. Steve Jobs dropped a bombshell today and publicly spoke out against DRM. I'm glad someone finally stepped up to the plate to do this. He gives some background on how we got to DRM and outlook for the future. What's interesting are some of the numbers he throws out: less than 3% of the music on the average iPod is purchased from the iTunes music store, over 20 billion unprotected songs were sold on CDs (2006), and less than 2 billion songs were sold with DRM (2006). If these numbers are, in fact correct, than this market is NOT dominated by Apple. Yes, they have an early lead and are extremely good at what they do (sexy products, easy-to-use), but the "game isn't over till its over" as they say. If you are remotely interested in the future of music sharing and the Internet the article is definitely worth a read. |