Sorry. That headline is misleading, as was the CNET headline we sourced this from. Only the red, orange, and pink news has any legs.
No, Microsoft is not really planning to abolish DRM. Essentially, this is just Zune’s Jason Reindorp musing on the possibility of considering the idea of getting rid of all DRM on the Zune, as if it were Microsoft’s decision. In reality, Microsoft is going to have to follow Apple on this one as music publishers fall under the iPod’s siren song. Mark my words — EMI dropping DRM will pump their sales immensely. They have a great back catalog of famous folks and the audiophile boomers are going to love the improved audio and DRM-free tunes.
What is Reindorp really excited about? The Zune in pink, orange, and red. Wow.
Microsoft sees DRM-free music in Zune’s future [News.com.com]
What are you talking about? Apple is following EMI. They approached apple and have made it clear that they are going to offer the deal to other publishers. (It even says so in the link.) If MS doesn’t take it then that is their own stupidity but in the very first paragraph we hear that they are going to do it.
EMI couldn’t even ATTEMPT this without Apple’s support. This is EMI approaching Apple, not the other way around. If Bill Gates had been on that stage along with Steve, then I could have seen the might of EMI’s efforts. As it stands, however, politically this was a win for EMI, not Apple.
Let me make sure I’m understand what you are saying correctly “Without the help of Apple, EMI would have trouble selling music that is DRM free.” See, people not blinded by Steve Jobs’ lies can see the beauty of no DRM, it simply doesn’t matter where you get the music from unless there is a difference in quality or price. If Microsoft got an exclusive on DRM free music sales the iTunes Music Store would be in SERIOUS trouble within a year. But not the iPod. Wow. Fuzzy math here.
Way to perpetuate BS with that headline.
Hey, when was CrunchGear acquired by The Onion?
>This is EMI approaching Apple, not the other way around. If
Um, that’s what I said.
>As it stands, however, politically this was a win for EMI, not Apple
Huh? That makes no sense whatsoever. How is this not a win, politically, for Apple as well? The average consumer is going to give Jobs all the credit. (Not noticing that all the media Jobs actually has a say about (Disney music labels, Pixar movies) remains curiously DRM’d.)
>EMI couldn’t even ATTEMPT this without Apple’s support.
Why? EMI says that their research shows that consumers want DRM free by a 10-1 margin. If iTunes wouldn’t have gone along they could have gone somewhere else and probably gotten a fantastic deal because it would it would mean instant credibility for whoever took up on their offer and send Apple scrambling to back up steve’s famous letter. No one is denying Apple is the leader and that’s why they got first dibs but DRM free can exist outside iTunes.
I’m hardly a zune fan (I think it just confused people and the iPod/iTunes looks even more elegant in comparison + all anyone knows about it is the absurd 3×3 thing) but the problem with this post is that when you click through you find its not just your headline but your blurb that’s misleading as well.