The Inquirer’s Charlie Demerjian thinks you’re all idiots (and dumb sheep and suckers…) for applauding the EMI anti-DRM stance announced yesterday. His main rationale is that you’re all celebrating being sold back rights that never should have been taken from you in the first place. Fair enough. But then he goes on and on about how a 30 percent price increase is “borderline outrageous,” which actually pains my soul. 30 cents, Charlie? You’re not willing to pay 30 cents to get a file that’s of significantly higher quality and without DRM? It seems to me that this whiner just likes to complain.
His analogy is even dumber. He suggests that the record companies are akin to a man walking down the street who just so happens to start beating you with a baseball bat, only stopping when you’ve paid in full. Call me crazy, but I don’t log onto iTunes because Steve Jobs is threatening to beat me up. He makes it seem like someone’s forcing you to buy this music. (Really, there are alternatives if you have no qualms with being unethical.) The solution is simple: don’t buy music (and pipe down while you’re at it).
I swear, some people are never happy. The Apple/EMI deal is a huge step in the right direction, but then there’s Negative Neds like our dear friend Charlie who just can’t appreciate a good thing for what it’s worth. Why such angst, Mister?
Apple/EMI DRM deal is a big bad joke [The Inquirer]
Shun Charlie the Whiner, Shuuuuuun.
Yay for DRM-Free music, Yaaaaay!
No, this guy is totally right. It’s just the story of the Pide Piper.
They introduced stupid DRM and are now charging more to take it away?
The quality should never have been reduced either. They only reduced it because 320ish bitrates doesn’t sound good through ipod headphones and smaller sizes = more songs. Now they are charging more to up the price for that too?
Good one. Next they should charge me for using iTunes.
Apple offering unprotected EMI files in AAC & 256kbps is mediocre. I was hoping that interoperability would be the issue at hand here, they have solved one of the problems but what about the fact music bought from iTunes still does not play across all media devices?
I read on some UK news sites about a UK company 7digital who are selling The Good, The Bad & The Queen in 320kbps & in MP3! http://www.7digital.com/GBQ
I hope these smaller sites can undercut iTunes in quality & interoperability.
This guy is right!!!!
Why should we pay…so they can give us back something that as always been in our rights?
And the quality upgrade? Is $.30 worth?
Ollie,
Good, Bad, & Queen is EMI and EMI has made it clear that their deal for unprotected music is more open to anyone in any format, not just Apple. Apple just feels that no consumer is going to pay $.30 premium just for unprotected songs so they upped the bit rate also. I happen to agree with that strategy as a 256 bit AAC file encoding a 24-bit master has got to sound better than a 16-bit uncompressed stream (CD). I wouldn’t be surprised to see FLAC, Apple Lossless, etc. in the future.
PT Basic & Brett,
Let’s face it, he’s not going to pay at any price and neither are you.
Who the hell is holding a gun to your head saying you have to buy through iTunes Music Store or put your data on the iPod? Last I checked iTunes/iPod supports unprotected AAC, MP3, AIFF, and Apple Lossless just fine and there are tons of players that will appreciate your business if you must have Vorbis or something similar. The music industry would love for you to continue purchasing CDs given that they’re always whining about how bad their sales are.
Unprotected AACs should play on any player that supports AAC. The licensing/openness of AAC and MP3 are nearly identical, though the quality of AAC is certainly superior. Not that anyone is going to notice without high quality output and a System One. Of course, don’t let that stop you from believe you can hear the difference.
If you’re going to bitch, just put on your tinfoil hat and encode all your shit in FLAC or put all your money together and make a deal yourself to sell FLAC versions on EMI. Since when is a more consumer choice a bad thing? Because in the real world, you are more than welcome to vote with your dollars about this. I will however think that Apple is going to make some bank on this if only because this offer is going to put a big damper on anti-trust investigations in Europe.