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Real Cuts Prices for DRM-Restricted Music
Flint Dragon writes "A story on MSNBC details RealNetworks' next step in converting iPod users from iTunes to their own online music store. Not only can you play music downloaded from their site on your iPod now, you can, for a limited time, purchase music for 50% cheaper (.49/song, 4.99/album)! This is the price that I'm willing to pay for. Too bad it won't last..."
Cause we all trust real enough to give them our money even though we don't trust them enough to install their crap.
I thought that these companie barely even made a profit at $1 per song. A limited time low, loss-inducing cost might attract customers for a while but the low switching cost between services means that they won't stay when prices going up, especially if your sound quality is not as good.
Some how I don't think their conversion-to-iPod feature is going to last, at least not once the new revision of iPod software comes out.
But I'd refuse to take DRM music even if it were free. The Audio Home Recording Act gives me the right to make backups of my music, to make compilations of my music, and to share those compilations with as many friends as I'd like, as long as I don't charge anything.
ANY system that interferes with those rights is unacceptable to me.
If someone says he and his monkey have nothing to hide, they almost certainly do.
I find it exceedingly amusing, and telling, that RealNetworks, after years of pushing proprietary audio and video formats, is now fighting Apple's use of proprietary hardware. They have to market to iPod users because mp3 players using Real format music have been blown out of the water.
Its too bad their software was always ad-ridden garbage. They will have to do a lot more than a loss-leader sales ploy to get my trust back.
This is a great move by Real. I will definatly be a buyer since there are many albums that I have been on the fringe of buying but have now wanted to spend 12-15 bucks on, but would def be wiling to spend 5.
This move will help increase competition in the market and I think will be beneficial to the consumers in the long run. As much as I like Apple, I like good old competition more cause it means better products at lower prices! Gotta Love Capatalism!
My Web Site - www.ocean-liners.com
..then a new 'firmware' update comes out for the iPod and your new library quits working...
Until the dust settles I'd not buy anything from real in hopes of it working with my iPod. Not like they support my platform anyway (Mac)
As a rock-in-roll Physicist once said, No matter where you go, there you are.
Real, have you looked at your player software?
And is there an easy way of downloading your free player without you trying to get me to download your non-free player every step of the way?
No matter if you as an individual have issues about either of these companies. This is a good example of the free market working as intended. Too bad all industries don't compete internally like this.
nos laetus epulor qui would domito nos
And still morally wrong and illegal to steal. How do we expect the RIAA, MPAA, etc to embrace technology when the most public geeks make comments like that? Sure music is overpriced and a lot is crap, but it's still stealing. At least iTunes and Real are going about this the right way.
That said, I'll NEVER install anything from Real on my system. It's as bad as Bonzi Buddy to get rid of.
Burn karma burn, slashdot inferno...
You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life. --Winston Churchill
why Apple is so upset about Real being able to its music work in the iPod?
Because they have to *support* Real's format. When Real's shit breaks on iPod, the users will view it as Apple's fault.
Free XBox, PS2
Who is going to buy DMR'ed music from a company that is struggling financially with no guarantee that the RM part of the DRM will function in 6 months.
Their ads should say...
RENT AN ALBUM FOR $4.99
ACT NOW, THIS FUNCTIONALITY WON'T LAST
Considering that in order to use Real's music you must transfer it using Real's Harmony software and any errors you get will be in that software... I think people would generally be more likely to blame Real rather than Apple.
- Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set him on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
After reading the headline, I thought, "Wow, for once this makes sense." What I mean is, they are selling an inferior product at a lower cost. This is standard business practice, and as long as they openly admit to the DRM, I've no problem with it.
Then I RTFA and changed my mind. This isn't giving the people a choice of an inferior product for a lower cost, this is a "sale" to try and win people away from iTunes. It's only supposed to last an undefined "limited amount of time." Probably until they feel they've won enough customers from apple. I guess it still makes sense business-wise, but I don't like it as much.
"...At the end of the day"..."when everyone goes home, you're stuck with yourself." RIP Layne Staley
Probably because Apple see that in the future the store (more importantly FairPlay) *will* be the profit center. They want to leverage the best selling MP3 player (their iPod) into establishing FairPlay'ed ACC files as a standard. Set the standard, pocket a few cents from every tune sold. This is why Apple just did a deal with Moto. on iTunes and cell phones.
There's a much better article about this that was published a few weeks ago, but I'm too lazy to look it up.
I still use my ultra-cheap alternative: allofmp3.com. They operate using a Russian broadcast license...
Instead of 99 cents a song, you pay a penny per megabyte. Often you can pay as little as 5 cents for a 128 bit MP3. Other formats and bitrates are available.
Best part? Since it's a Russian "broadcast", the RIAA doesn't get any of it. Tasty!
I hear you! With all of the spyware in Real's software and other annoying features, they've lost my trust and that of a lot of other people. As it stands, I only use Real Player when I absolutely have to. And since I'm pretty happy with my iPod and ITMS as it is, I won't be switching anytime soon.
To the making of books there is no end, so let's get started
"Apple has said their Music Store is not meant as a profit center"
No, but it is nice when it is...
And I believe last quarter, they actually made about a million on their iTMS division. Its chump change compared to everything else, and not much when you consider what they are spending, but its still nothing to sneeze at because it is profitable.
Past that, if you buy from Real, you can use any music player. If you buy from Apple, you can use the iPod alone unless you are willing to burn to CD first.
Personally, I don't see the problem with what Apple is doing. Apple gives anyone the right to put music on their machine in a number of different ways. If they want to protect their content, maybe they should build something into the iPod that doesn't require the use of Apple's intellectual properties. After all, its a bit hypocritical to steal someone elses IP to protect your own.
I've never seen Apple get pissed off at the Linux on iPod project...I know at least one Apple guy that has this running on one of his iPods and thinks its cool. So -- if you want to build your own OS for the device, Apple isn't stopping you...
But I agree with ya -- Apple's online service is much better than the competitors who all had much longer in the business of content delivery including paid content delivery and most of these companies were the 'big dogs' (how fucking hillbilly is that phrase) before Apple decided they were going to get into the system.
Apple didn't force their way to #1 -- they made the better product both in hardware and software.
Like they say, you get what you pay for. I'd rather pay $.99 a song and get to keep it rather than paying $.50 for a crippled song that comes from a company with a dodgy past. Somehow I doubt this will cut into Apple's sales that much.
What was so hard about that?
NetInfo connection failed for server 127.0.0.1/local
And don't give me that typical crap line of "I wouldn't have bought it anyway, so I'm not depriving them of a sale." If you don't really want it, or can't afford it, that doesn't justify copyright infringement. And I fully support the RIAA's actions against you, because by your own admission, you are not their customer.
"Ask not what your country can do for you." --John F. Kennedy
Or just copy the CD...
This whole thing is about DRM ubiquity. Real is scared to death of the Windows DRM so they go after Apple. Makes sense in a twisted sort of a way.
Real and Virgin are going after Apple for "not licensing Fairplay to them". The more likely scenario is that Apple wouldn't license Fairplay to them unless they used it exclusively and both Real and Virgin have their own DRM schemes and that wouldn't help them to get their DRMs into the market. Apple licensed Fairplay to Motorola. I'm sure that it is an exclusive contract that means that more users will be using Fairplay.
Real wants people to use their DRM and so does Virgin. So, they both complain that Apple refused to license Fairplay to them, when the more likely scenario is that Apple refused to license Fairplay to them without them agreeing to the contract, like Motorola did.
So, Real releases Harmony, which will allow their DRM'd files to be played on the number one media player, the iPod, by faking out the Fairplay DRM software to think that the Real DRM is the same as the Fairplay DRM. Whether this is legal or not stands to be proven. Then Real undercuts the standard prices by half and sets about creating FUD about how Apple is evil and won't let them play together and starts a "freedom of music" site designed to attack Apple only. Seems far fetched.
Virgin meanwhile attacks from their end, in France, and says that they've been shut out by Apple, the obvious monopoly (hardly) that they are.
This is a DRM war. The one that has more media that supports their DRM out in the market is going to win in the long run.
A couple of points that the Real site is misleading about:
1. The price to burn a track to CD is $0.79 not $0.49.
2. The price per album is 1/2 of what it cost before, as low as $4.99, so not all albums are $4.99.
Seems that they are trying to open the iPod to their proprietary DRM format, which isn't really open at all either.
Also bear in mind that Apple is guaranteed to release an update to the iPod software that will disable the Harmony software from helpiong to keep the DRM working on the iPod too.
iTunes also has over 1 million songs in their library while Real has almost 7 hundred thousand.
Who will win? Only time will tell. Seems to me that Real is playing dirty to try and make a minor inroad that won't pay off in the long run. How long can they support losing money in order to try to bring people over?
Apple has done nothing to stop you from playing songs from other sources. I have tons of MP3's on my iPod that didn't come from Apple.
If all I could play on my iPod with FairPlay DRM'ed tunes, then I would be upset. However as it stands I'm free to not use iTMS as much or as little as I please and still have a wonderful iPod experience.
Remember Real can make their own music store anytime they want w/o violating an Apple held copyright, and by the same token it isn't Apple's responsibility to make sure they succeed.
It's one thing to complain about companies who lock out competition and make their own products worthless. I would say Apple is not one of them.
100% Crunchier
The Free link is now the first one on real.com
Not too hard to find, unless you're blind.
(for all the blind people out there, I apologize)
Current standard film still records at 24 frames per second. If you watch closely during any sequence that has any action in it you will see how poor and antiquated that frame rate value truly is. And yet because we have become accustom to it nobody seems to question it. (Except for that crazy Lucas guy who wants everyone to convert to digital video.)
Audiophiles similarly have become accustom to all sorts of crazy arguments about what you can and can't hear. CD's arn't as "warm" as LP's, tubes are better than transistors, high quality MP3's don't sound like the CDs. However I'm quite sure that if you were to sit down two people who had not heard any given track that was played on a CD and then on a very high quality compressed format they would be hard pressed to pick which was which. (Given that it's a 50/50 chance a more controlled method of testing would have to be done but I think you get my point.)
Now I still personally will never pay for any stripped down, DRM crippled, poorly encoded music but I don't think that using a compressed format, done right, is a bad thing at all.
Really, I know what I'm doing...Ohhhh, look at the shiny buttons!
Finding something I like involves a little extra digging, sampling, and detective work... but I actually find that more interesting than being spoonfed Very Popular Radio Hitz complete with useless yet encumbering software designed around the premise that I am a thief. I keep a few bucks in a Bitpass account, a few bucks in my Paypal account, it's all pretty easy.
It doesn't sound like it. You said it involves, "a little extra digging, sampling, and detective work."
Now using iTunes is easy. I don't see how that point can even be debated, the interface is awesome, the songs are what they say they are, the downloads are fast, you can sample 30 seconds of a song before buying (more than most CD stores allow), etc.
Yet you try to marginalize it by pretending all the music in itunes is "Very Popular Radio Hitz." I'm sorry, but that is just plain old horseshit.
Then you say that iTunes is "useless yet encumbering software designed around the premise that I am a thief."
It obviously is not useless. For one thing, it saves me from having to do "a little extra digging, sampling, and detective work." It lets me buy music in a setting where the legality is not in doubt. It makes it easy to do all of this. Useless?
iTunes doesn't have a "premise that [you are] a thief." iTunes is there to make it easy to organize, buy, and use your digital music.
It may be a minority but who's spending smarter money?
In your case, what with all your detective work, digging, etc for music, I would say you're only spending your money smarter if your time is worthless.
Mine isn't, so I use iTunes.
Ironically, the word ironically is often used incorrectly.
Your assertion that mp3s offer you choice to the ITMS is very flawed. This isn't an alternative for legal music on an IPOD. There are only two ways to get mp3s on your IPOD.
1) Steal Music
2) Go to the store, buy an album, rip an album in mp3, move mp3s to IPOD.
Option 2 is the only legal option, and it is hardly an option to ITMS. It is like considering driving to the store and buying blocks of ice as an alternative to paying for electricity to cool your refridgerator.