Tuesday, May 18, 2004
Copy Music, Right?
I am beginning to get very annoyed at this whole DRM issue. I understand that the music industry feels they are being taken advantage of and generally stolen from. Sound familiar? Customers have accused the music industry of exactly the same thing for many years. The music industry, and the entertainment industry in general, has done everything it can to alienate customers. Why we still buy from these jerks is beyond me. I suppose we all have a need for entertainment. Since there is nowhere else to go, we pay the outrageous fees and put up with whatever latest annoyance is brought to us in the name of copyright.
Take, for instance, this latest article from Bill Howard, opinion columnist at PC Magazine. His point is something far different from mine, but his paragraph on DRM says it all. I can go out and buy a CD (or rip it from a friend or download it online), then place the files on any device my heart desires. I am in complete control of when and how I can transport my music and listen to it. Why would I pay for the restrictions imposed by purchasing music online?
Supposedly, I can get better quality and feel like I’m “doing the right thing” this way. Don’t count on it. The general public feels cheated by the music industry and I can rip just as good or better quality from a CD than I can purchase online. Oh yeah, I can purchase songs for less than a dollar, individually, so I can save money, right? I’ve found that if I listen to one or two songs from a band and I like them, after listening to the whole CD a few times, most, if not all, of the songs grow on me and I like them, too. I can generally get a whole CD cheaper than paying a buck a song. Plus, it’s worth a few extra bucks to not have to deal with DRM.
Don’t get me wrong, I am very happy that music is being offered online for sale, and the more people use it, the better it will get—even DRM. As for me, for now, I think I’ll stick with an “old fashioned” CD.
» Posted by Queue at 12:02 AM (ET)
Category: Rant
Comments
I wasn’t aware of iTunes album price limit. That still doesn’t help with the whole DRM situation. I have found lately that DRM protected WMA files won’t even play in my WinAMP, and I KNOW they won’t work on my MP3 player. All the more reason to not purchase music online.
» Posted by Queue
May 22, 2004 01:28 PM
Sorry, due to comment spam abuse, new comments on this entry are closed until I find time to upgrade Movable Type and enable registration and moderation.
You’re right that, individually, purchasing songs usually costs more than just going out and buying the CD, but we can’t forget that, many times, buying an entire album online is still cheaper than the CD. The iTunes Music Store isn’t the only venue that usually halts the price of a full album somewhere around $9.99 even if there are more than 10 tracks. I think I have an album I purchased online for $9.99 that had 20 or so tracks. The physical CD of that album was around $20.
» Posted by Lee Bennett
May 18, 2004 01:32 AM