Sony, Yahoo Offer DRM-Free Downloadable Song
Your mother was right about sharing – Learn to share. Infact, Yahoo and Sony BMG Music is offering a premium price for DRM free downloadable songs. No catch, and it is in mp3 format, which basically means you can store it, transfer it and burn it as much as you like. You can even share it with your friends.
The Yahoo Music release is limited to a single song from Jessica Simpson that is personalized with hundreds of names for different listeners, and was reportedly provided DRM-free for that reason. Its a good idea, but witha price tag of more than 99cent, why should I pay for that? I mean I can easily download it off the net for free at bittorrent or using Google search – yes you can use Google for searching mp3. Its illegal and I’m not going to say how.
The key question, however, is whether consumers will be willing to pay a premium price for all this flexibility? According to source, the reason behind this DRM free songs is the fear of turning Apple into a monopoly, controling the music industry in the near future. I think Apple has a great tool and market capability to turn their AAC format into the next mp3, what they need to do is open up the format for other competitors, once it has become a standard, its hard to bring it down – like Micorsoft.
To me, it doesn’t matter if the music is DRM free or not, if it is dirt cheap and I can afford it – then I’ll give my full support. For the moment, I’m still the old fashion type – CDs.
Apple To Announce iTunes Movie Rentals
Another three weeks before the Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference kicks off, and it is widely believed that CEO steve Jobs will use the keynote to address some Apple issues – his retirement. Okay, maybe it might be true since Bill Gates is retiring also, now the real issue is the debut of movie rentals through the iTunes Music Store.
Personally I love the idea, imagine able to rent movies for a limited time, certain movies are worth collecting while others simply belongs in the rubbish bin after watching it once. Apple is said to have ironed out agreements with Walt Disney, Universal Studios, Paramount Pictures, and Warner Bros., and is currently in talks with other major movie studios as well. The problem with this big movie studio is the non-tech savvy CEO, still doing things the old ways.
The system works by stamping a deadline/limited views for every movie downloaded from the online store, after a few round of watching, the movie might stop playing – What to do? Makes me wonder if we back date our computer date, will it works?
