Music industry watch

Growing concern over incompatible music stores

A few weeks ago I first mused about the potential dangers of incompatible online music stores and it seems I wasn't far off the mark. I just stumbled across two more articles that lament the same issue. C-NET talks about stalemate on digital content and Salon talks about musical snares:

Because iTunes won't play my Windows Media music files. And the Windows Media Player won't play songs purchased from the iTunes store.

That's not the future I want to pay for. In the 21st century era of late capitalism, the consumer is supposed to be king -- my every desire is supposed to be reflected by marketplace offerings. Instead, the market is ordering me to get Steve Jobs' smirking grin tattooed on my butt, and while that may be an improvement on being branded with a Microsoft iron, I'd still rather keep my skin as it started, unblemished.

and, from C-NET:

"People don't like that," Kalanik said. "Until these services have standards, and they're compatible, and you can play whatever you have on whatever device you have, people are going to resort to the services that do give them that. And those are illicit."

I guess these services make it easier to buy than to steal. However, they still need to make listening to purchased music as easy as listening to stolen music. The C-NET article talks about how various companies are working to create interop standards, but given how SDMI panned out, I'm not holding my breath.

Posted by Mayhem at November 7, 2003 11:49 AM