You’d think that the music industry would be grateful for Apple, which, with the launch of the iTunes Store in 2003, pretty much saved its keister. Not so, according to the old gray lady! In the negotiations leading up to tiered pricing and the removal of DRM on iTunes, Steve Jobs and Sony’s music chairman, Rolf Schmidt-Holtz, got into a little bit of an argument over the phone, which the paper described as “tense.” (Knowing the New York Times, “tense” probably means some pretty salty language, like in a Tarentino film.) It seems the Sony man wasn’t satisfied with the timing of the new pricing structure, and made his opinion known to Jobs on Christmas Eve. Jobs, as is his wont, had none of it, and thoroughly laid into Mr. Sony.
Needless to say, Jobs got his way, and Sony’s DRM-free music launched with the rest of the major labels’.
Now, why did Apple let the companies get away with their tiered pricing scheme? One word: iPhone. Apple, rightly, saw cellphones as the future for music distribution, and wanted to ensure that iTunes+iPhone had a good start. (You’ll also note Nokia’s Comes With Music.) Get enough people using their iPhone to download off iTunes, of which Apple gets approximately 20 cents per 99-cent song, and you’re golden. Then, for better or worse, the music labels have to deal with Apple everywhere they turn.
(That the music industry desperately wants something like Amazon MP3 to take off shouldn’t surprise anyone.)
It’s like, iTunes is pretty much up there with Q-Tip, Kleenex and Xerox as being synonymous with its product. Digital music = iTunes.
Um, digital music means MP3s. Where you get them is of little consequence. I really sometimes wonder if you guys have an education or proof read this stuff before publishing it. Perhaps you need to look into the meaning of synonymous or in the mean time stop using big words you don’t understand.
Logically, sure, where you get your MP3’s is up to you, but for the masses of people, look at how convenient iTunes is. If I’m in the car with my friend and hear a good song on the radio, I can hold my iPhone while Shazam finds the song, then I can click 1 button to bring it up in iTunes, and then with another 2 clicks and a password, I can have purchased the album and have it on my iPhone.
Maybe it’s just me, but as long as Apple isn’t charging me 2-3 times what Amazon or someone else is charging, iTunes is by far much easier to use and so for many people, it’s easy to see why getting music is synonymous with using iTunes.
ITunes music is not in the MP3 format but the AAC format. Since the iTunes store has the lion’s share of the market, the author of the article got it right. “Digital music = iTunes.”
No Brad, digital music means AAC sans DRM, a far better format than the old – very old -mp3.
Digital music = iTunes –> no, I disagree.
I love music but hate iTunes (and Apple)! Give me Amazon MP3s anytime.
Q-Tip = great hip hop, not cotton swabs.
That is all.
At tanht, is that a reasoned “hate”, or an emotional and illogical “hate”? Care to explain?
It seems to me that any time someone chides a Crunchgear writer for Apple favoritism, they seem to have a bit of a M$ fanboy boner going on. If you’re going to make comments that have little regard for the truth, maybe you should preface them with “I am a soldier in the Bill Gates Army.” I’m a gamer so I’ll always be a PC/Microsoft user, but give credit where credit is due. Whether you like it or not, Apple’s market share for digital music is undeniable. The author never said iTunes was the greatest ever, me merely alluded to their market penetration. By any measure, Apple has far outclassed Microsoft, Amazon, and all the other “me too” companies out there trying to get a piece. So get over your biased for a minute and admit defeat on one front of your silly MS/Apple battle.
This is kind of a silly argument. Digital music obviously refers to music stored as a digital file, whether it’s MP3 or AAC format. For many digital music is synonymous with bit torrent or Limewire, etc. However, legal digital downloads are synonymous with iTunes. This is true whether or not you like Apple or not.
Sounds like someone needs Steve Jobs to set you Sonys straight!
AAC is a good open format.