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With Apple, the iPod, and the iTunes Store owning the lion’s share of the legal download business they have created quite a DRM ecosystem, Apple calls Fairplay. This leaves Apple and well… everybody else. Well everybody else have up until now been powered by Microsoft’s DRM. Microsoft’s recently unveiled the Zune music player (NOT SHIIPPING YET) that will be tied to the Zune Marketplace.
This puts Microsoft into direct competition with its partners that Microsoft calls PlaysForSure. Well RealNetworks may be their first defector. RealNetworks has announced the launch of Rhapsody DNA. Their new DRM format will be used at first for the company’s Rhapsody To Go subscription music service, which allows subscribers to move downloaded tracks to a supported portable player and listen to them for as long as the subscription remains active. Seems Microsoft DRM at Rhapsody is on the way out. Maybe Zune has its first victim, but not the iPod Microsoft was aiming at.
I guess when Real saw the Zune, it saw well BROWN… then said Hasta la Vista to Microsoft DRM. Not that I blame them as being a Microsoft partner has not helped their market-share and now Microsoft plans to take some of it away with Zune and the marketplace they are trying to create. Is Real the first “eaten” child? Could be. Will it work?
Contrary to what some Windows apologists would make you think we still have no solid ship date or price for the Zune, but we do know the colors… white, black, and well brown. But Real is moving fast it seems to differentiate itself as the color “brown” is NOT green and may mean something else to Real.
According to Ars-technica “RealNetworks is attempting to follow the ecosystem route, albeit in a more measured and “open” fashion, and present itself as another alternative to the PlaysForSure universe. RealNetworks will be transitioning Rhapsody To Go to Rhapsody DNA, dropping DRMed WMA completely. RealNetworks says that Rhapsody DNA will allow users to access their music “across different types of devices. However, to get the “benefits of Rhapsody DNA,” device manufacturers will need to specifically support the new DRM.”
Sound like a support nightmare for Rhapsody users while they transition. SanDisk may be just the first of many partners for Real. The company says it is in negotiations with other device manufacturers to enable support for Rhapsody DNA.
Apple has long been criticized for this “closed” platform, yet the iTunes Store “protected AAC” format is totally accessible to both Windows and Mac users alike. Apple’s Fairplay is built on MPEG4 (AAC) with is not an Apple proprietary format as some would lead you to believe. I belong to the ranks of many that hate DRM in any form. In the present climate among content owners (aka: Record Companies and Movie Studios) I doubt DRM is going away anytime soon. Honestly, Apple has done a great job of making the DRM as painless for average users as possible. You can also “burn” your purchased tracks from the iTunes Store to a CD and rip them back as MP3 if you like. Apple also allows the use of purchased tracks in iMovie, iPhoto, and iDVD.
Apple has come up with the pricing, selection, ease of use, and DRM that many consumers could live with. I think these are the main reason users Apple has such a large market share. All this success for Apple has spawned several imitators. Yes, you may be locked into iTunes, but you are NOT locked into a computer platform. You are free to mix or switch between Windows and Macs at will using iTunes.
Have you noticed that even after the DOJ case that Microsoft makes little software for any other platform other than Windows? That Windows DRM is NOT available for the Mac? That as Mac market-share grows, Microsoft drops off more Mac OS X applications support, dropping Virtual PC, Internet Explorer, and Windows Media development. Apple supports iTunes on both Mac and Windows and it is mostly identical in the users experience. Windows DRM is ONLY on… Windows. Why? Who is locking you in I ask?
The early critics of Apple have yelled about choice for consumers. Seems they will be getting yet a another incompatible DRM as a choice. Probably not what they had in mind. Yet another DRM to deal with does not make me happy. Maybe these guys should notice that eMusic is number two in legal downloads, although a distant number two, and they use NO DRM, just iPod compatible MP3s!
