Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Steve Jobs and the State of Legal Music Downloads

Posted by pudge on from the if-it-is-not-possible-then-please-drop-your-sharing-limits-in-itunes dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Rolling Stone has published an interview with Steve Jobs about the current state of the music industry. He is a smart man, that guy. 'When we first went to talk to these record companies -- about eighteen months ago -- we said, "None of this technology that you're talking about's gonna work. We have Ph.D.s here who know the stuff cold, and we don't believe it's possible to protect digital content."'"

6 of 964 comments (clear)

  1. Can other mp3 players use itunes? by Heroic+Salmon · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    I want to get my girlfriend a hard drive based mp3 player for christmas, but I'm not sure what to get. Ipods look great, but they are quite pricey. When you get music files off itunes, what format do they come in? Can you then make them into general purpose mp3's that can be used in any player (the Rio Karma looks nice otherwise)?

    I would check myself but I can't go to the itunes site at work and have never used it.

  2. Re:The protection doesn't work by zeux · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    it's just not posible to protect something from millions of hackers...

    Excuse me, it's very possible.

    Try to encrypt simething with PGP.

    Unless you give your key, I don't know any hacker that would be able to decrypt the data.

    --
    Iraq: war to save the U
  3. Subscription Service by StarryTripper · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    Some had mentioned how a $1 a track is far too much and wonder why a subscription service for downloads not offered. I've came across two such subscriptions services that I've never seen mentione here on /. One offers $35/month unlimited downloads (plus other deals, just hit music, nights only, weekend only), the other (which I subscribe to is $15/month for 1000 downloads (though limited to 128Kbps generally) or $0.01/MB. The best part being the ability to choose bitrate and format. Though it's worth noting that the files are archived as 384Kbps MP3's, and are transcoded to what ever is specified for download. http://allofmp3.com (Russian) http://weblisten.com/ (Spanish) Both will need to have linked click to switch to English

  4. Re:Bonus content by BigKato · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    When I first read your list I thought you were poking fun at them for all their inclusions in the album. I wondered why you were modded up as 'informative' instead of 'funny'. I didn't realize you liked or needed "fan club" membership or color magazines when you buy cds. When I buy a cd I want 10-12 good songs for 10-12 dollars.

    Filler songs are killing music sales. For rap music it's filler and skits and introludes, interludes, and outros, etc.etc.etc. You remember those 100 disc cd changers back in the '90s? Okay, they're still around and I want one and they're so cheap I'm wondering why I don't buy one. Anyways, you buy one of those, stuff it with cds, and you'll likely get a filler song or interlude 40-50% of the time. That's why people want to choose which songs they want to download.

    Am I even on topic?

    --
    So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.
  5. Troll? by Tumbleweed · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    I'm not a Troll, I'm an _Ogre!_ *geez*

  6. Hybrid Cars (was: Re:The Copy) by tchapin · · Score: 0, Offtopic


    I know this is OT to the whole discussion, but I thought I'd ask. I'm interested in hybrid vehicles as well, but the questions I have are:

    - how much pollution goes into the manufacture of the batteries?
    - how safely and cleanly are that number of batteries disposed of?

    Thanks.

    Todd

    --
    -- !todd erases a red dot! I steal music on the internet.