It's About Time

...it’s about space, it’s about the prehistoric race…

FADE IN:
INT. DRM FREE REALM – DAWN
WOMAN with dark hair sits reading something on her computer screen. She strums her fingers on the dining room table. She grabs her coffee cup, takes a quick swallow and begins typing…

Lost. Lost in Space. Steve Jobs is lost. He may give the impression that he found the plot yesterday when he wrote “Thoughts on Music”, but I would suggest he has lost his edge. He is playing a game of catch up, suddenly jumping on the DRM free bandwagon, making it his cause. This is really a game of dis-information, one that would be the envy of benevolent dictators world over (if they could but follow his devious plot). Steve is so tricky that even one of his critics, Fred Wilson, wrote in his blogpost this morning that he may have been wrong about Steve’s intentions: “I thought Jobs was using DRM to build a monopoly on digital music. Either I was wrong or Jobs has changed his mind. Doesn't matter.” Slippery, our friend Steve.

But it does matter! Steve Jobs has gone on the record. Big deal! He has asked the music industry and major labels to wake up, to allow their music to be sold DRM free. Easy for him to say now. His lovely little devices are jammed full of DRM free music: 97% of it, according to Apple, comes from CDs or P2P sites (I’ve heard it is something like 40 to 1, P2P versus purchased). His iPods were never intended to be the repositories of legal downloads. It has all been a ruse. Until now it has been in his interest to have people thinking that he was on the side of legitimate music purchases when in truth he has done little but enslave the consumer (those who purchase music in his proprietary store). He has done very little for the labels (and artists they represent) other than legitimize illegal file sharing through this must-have accessory.

But why should we care? Because at the heart of DRM free debate is the concept of freedom -- freedom for consumers do with their legally purchased music, what they want, where they want it and how they want it. Yet consumers are not even aware of the battle being waged on their behalf. I sit in my cozy little office and living room ranting and raving about DRM and the majority of purchasers in the iTunes store haven’t a clue that their purchased music cannot be played on other devices. My son is a loyal fan of iTunes and adored his iPod (lost somewhere in a move between countries) but he has never purchased a single track on iTunes. He has recently decided that his mobile phone is sufficient for listening to his music, even though he misses his little iPod (he knows he can steal mine for watching the latest episodes of 24).

Consumers have had the wool pulled over their eyes for years now. Labels and the media have been fooled too. Steve (through iTunes) has created the fog the blinds. He is guilty of sucking users in, enslaving them in formats and devices. And only now that iTunes has been sued in Europe, found to be illegal in Norway, is Steve is ready to back down a bit. Notice how he patronizes European countries:

“Much of the concern over DRM systems has arisen in European countries.  Perhaps those unhappy with the current situation should redirect their energies towards persuading the music companies to sell their music DRM-free.  For Europeans, two and a half of the big four music companies are located right in their backyard.  The largest, Universal, is 100% owned by Vivendi, a French company.  EMI is a British company, and Sony BMG is 50% owned by Bertelsmann, a German company.”

Poor little Steve. He cries out for a helping hand from the labels (who in my mind have unknowingly helped him snow consumers and the media). Why didn’t he redirect his energy to persuading the music companies to sell their music DRM-free before now? Because the myth that he was encouraging legal downloads served his purposes.

It’s about time Steve Jobs evolve from the prehistoric race of businessmen who use sophisticated marketing strategies to control consumer behavior. He can claim that the big labels forced him to go along with the program when he licensed their music to sell on iTunes. But it served his purposes. He has sold 90 million iPods! He convinced the labels, the media and the consumer that he was doing the right thing yet his iPods have been equivalent to the truck being used to sell stolen goods. He is really no different from our friend Rupert Murdoch and his NewsCrowd who are trying to convince artists that free streams on MySpace (that generate hundreds of millions in ad revenue) is for their own good. What is good for consumers, the media and big business is a little more honesty. It’s about time, Steve. But I suppose it’s better late than never.

FADE OUT
EXT. PEDESTRIAN PATH – NIGHT
WOMAN with brown hair on baby blue scooter, swathed in gloves, scarf and covered with lap rug swerves to avoid people walking home or going to the pub for a pint…

Posted at 08:20AM Feb 07, 2007 by shelley in Music  |  Comments[1]