Big5 wants additional Security for PC iTMS?
Toronto Star reports on 3 of Big 5 with concerns
NEW YORK?It may take months for Apple's digital-music service to prove itself, but its promising, if inconclusive, start has touched off a scramble for the real prize ? the Microsoft-driven PC market.
Apple declined to disclose second-week music sales by press time, but industry sources were expecting a drop-off from week one, when the company claimed to have sold more than 1 million tunes. How the service will fare over the long haul is anyone's guess.
Even so, a host of leading media and technology brands, as well as music subscription services, are planning to slug it out when a Windows-compatible version of Apple Computer's iTunes Music Store hits the market later this year.
"This is the beginning of the arms race," says Rob Vann-Adibe, CEO of Ecast, a provider of download services. "In the last four weeks our phones have been ringing off the hook with calls from organizations interested in a way to get to the market with a Windows solution."
Replicating an iTunes-style experience in the PC market promises to be challenging from both a product-development and a label-support standpoint, sources say. Apple, which specializes in proprietary products and services in a gated universe, must now develop software for use with a foreign operating system.
Competing companies must match Apple's design and ease-of-use innovations, and the labels also have to become comfortable with an iTunes-for-Windows concept.
Major labels, for example, are expressing concern that iTunes isn't secure enough for PC distribution.
Consumers purchasing music through the iTunes Music Store for the Mac can play their music on up to three computers, synch their collections with every iPod they own, burn unlimited CDs of individual songs, and burn unchanged playlists up to 10 times each.
Some executives want to see greater control over how many times a copy can be made or synched to another computer before making iTunes available for Windows.
While two majors have signed wholesale agreements with Apple for a Windows product, according to sources, others are reserving judgment, terming the Mac version of iTunes "an experiment."
"We wouldn't have rolled this out wide to the PC market," a leading new-media executive at one major label says. "We would have been a lot more judicious about it."
Some label executives are describing iTunes as a test to see what the revenue opportunities for digital music would be with looser usage rules.
Philip Wiser, chief technology officer at Sony Music Entertainment, declined comment on whether iTunes required a stricter digital-rights management component for PC release. However, he noted that he "wouldn't say that, by default, usage rules on Apple move on to the Windows platform."
Sources at other labels maintain that if the demand and money is there, concerns regarding usage rules will not be an issue in the long run.
NEW YORK?It may take months for Apple's digital-music service to prove itself, but its promising, if inconclusive, start has touched off a scramble for the real prize ? the Microsoft-driven PC market.
Apple declined to disclose second-week music sales by press time, but industry sources were expecting a drop-off from week one, when the company claimed to have sold more than 1 million tunes. How the service will fare over the long haul is anyone's guess.
Even so, a host of leading media and technology brands, as well as music subscription services, are planning to slug it out when a Windows-compatible version of Apple Computer's iTunes Music Store hits the market later this year.
"This is the beginning of the arms race," says Rob Vann-Adibe, CEO of Ecast, a provider of download services. "In the last four weeks our phones have been ringing off the hook with calls from organizations interested in a way to get to the market with a Windows solution."
Replicating an iTunes-style experience in the PC market promises to be challenging from both a product-development and a label-support standpoint, sources say. Apple, which specializes in proprietary products and services in a gated universe, must now develop software for use with a foreign operating system.
Competing companies must match Apple's design and ease-of-use innovations, and the labels also have to become comfortable with an iTunes-for-Windows concept.
Major labels, for example, are expressing concern that iTunes isn't secure enough for PC distribution.
Consumers purchasing music through the iTunes Music Store for the Mac can play their music on up to three computers, synch their collections with every iPod they own, burn unlimited CDs of individual songs, and burn unchanged playlists up to 10 times each.
Some executives want to see greater control over how many times a copy can be made or synched to another computer before making iTunes available for Windows.
While two majors have signed wholesale agreements with Apple for a Windows product, according to sources, others are reserving judgment, terming the Mac version of iTunes "an experiment."
"We wouldn't have rolled this out wide to the PC market," a leading new-media executive at one major label says. "We would have been a lot more judicious about it."
Some label executives are describing iTunes as a test to see what the revenue opportunities for digital music would be with looser usage rules.
Philip Wiser, chief technology officer at Sony Music Entertainment, declined comment on whether iTunes required a stricter digital-rights management component for PC release. However, he noted that he "wouldn't say that, by default, usage rules on Apple move on to the Windows platform."
Sources at other labels maintain that if the demand and money is there, concerns regarding usage rules will not be an issue in the long run.
Comments
Get real. If they screw this up I'm going P2P for good. It's as simple as that. I'm not going to put up with their BS.
Originally posted by hmurchison
Major labels, for example, are expressing concern that iTunes isn't secure enough for PC distribution.
Talk about biting the hand that feeds you...
When the windows version comes out I hope Apple increases the number of computers from 3 to 5-6. I own 3 macs and 2 PC's that I use for MP3's in different rooms of my house (among other things).
<thinking to myself>
Maybe I should look into NAS?
</thinking to myself>
Speaking as a musician, if you do decide to spite the industry and go to file sharing, please make a point of attending concerts as much as you can. CDs bought at concerts bring more money to the artist than CDs sold at retail (less so in the case of artists on major labels, but still), and of course the other forms of revenue are also really helpful.
Thanks.
They're actually concerned about Piracy on the Platform that Pirates the MOST. Pennywise Pound Foolish.
Hopefully this is false and Apple can overcome this. I bet they're trying to squeeze more profits from Apple. The mere fact that AAC has small marketshare is initial protection right there from P2P
Originally posted by Amorph
The better iTMS does over time, the more leverage Apple has to convince the Big 5 that trusting their customers really is the best way (no, really!). This will be a long, slow road, and perhaps they'll have to succumb to the siren song of Gates' vile "security" initiative before they realize that Draconian usage restrictions just piss people off. (But then, of course, once they're in bed with MS they'll have a devil of a time getting out...)
Speaking as a musician, if you do decide to spite the industry and go to file sharing, please make a point of attending concerts as much as you can. CDs bought at concerts bring more money to the artist than CDs sold at retail (less so in the case of artists on major labels, but still), and of course the other forms of revenue are also really helpful.
Thanks.
what type of music do you listen to...and haha can i have some to listen to?
Originally posted by Amorph
Speaking as a musician, if you do decide to spite the industry and go to file sharing, please make a point of attending concerts as much as you can. CDs bought at concerts bring more money to the artist than CDs sold at retail (less so in the case of artists on major labels, but still), and of course the other forms of revenue are also really helpful.
Hmmm. I never thought about that before. That's a interesting point. THX 8)
Originally posted by hmurchison
They're actually concerned about Piracy on the Platform that Pirates the MOST.
If Apple had 90% of the market share, they would be getting the Royal Screw Job. But even with their 5%, I still head to my minitower for all my unauthorized (NOTE: mostly legal) copying needs.
Originally posted by ast3r3x
what type of music do you listen to...and haha can i have some to listen to?
I haven't decided to share my iTunes yet, but I can tell you where to get some songs to listen to:
http://www.theletterpressopry.com/audio/
</plug>