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Store Says DRM Causes 3 of 4 Support Calls
Carter writes "Ars Technica is reporting that Musicload, one of Europe's largest movie stores, has found that 75% of its customer support problems are caused by DRM. Users have frequent problems using the music that they have purchased, which has led Musicload to try selling independent label music without DRM. Artists choosing to abandon DRM in favor of good old-fashioned MP3 have seen 40% growth in sales since December. Good to see someone in the business both 'gets it' and is willing to do something about it."
Curiously, the article doesn't mention any specific problems. I'm racking my tiny brain right now to think of some problem that isn't desired by the RIAA.
I submit to you the anecdotal evidence of my sister's "iPod." She purchased songs through iTMS and attempted to move the DRM'd files onto her SanDisk MP3 Player. Then she wondered why it didn't work. It didn't work because the files have digital rights management & only brand specific players will play it--and vice versa.
You know, right now iPods are probably the most popular portable music device. But I don't know of any other music download DRM services that they work with. So if some third party download service called Musicload is reporting that 75% of problem calls are DRM related, I'm going to wager that every single call went a little something like "Do you have an iPod?" "No." "I'm sorry, iPod doesn't support our DRM." (or the German equivalent). In fact, on their site, I don't see an iPod as being supported.
I think a DRM standard that everyone adopts would avoid these issues but I don't forsee that happening in the future. It benefits Apple somewhat because they can have a great service or a great player and reap the market. I don't blame them, however, because they do a fine job on both ends. I am concerned about any sort of free market existing here.
In the end, the RIAA wants these problems. They don't want you docking a player with many computers and soaking up the files. They want one player associated with one computer associated with one account and any attempt to anything else should wipe everything off the face of the planet. Why? Money. Somehow the consumer no longer has a voice.
My work here is dung.
I personally don't understand why everybody hates DRM so much. Let's consider the needs of the handicaped for once.
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'Bout time
Four support calls isn't really that bad...
This store is taking a realistic look at their support costs, and has determined that a particular "feature" is costing them a lot of money.
Woohoo. Great. Little happy dance. Big fucking deal.
They aren't the ones who are pushing DRM. They ahve it because without it they wouldn't get the major label tracks which (I presume) form the bulk of their income. This isn't hurting the labels who are requiring the DRM, its simply sqishing the middle players. Now, this is certainly better than just squishing the consumer, but it's still a far cry from leverage to affect change where the change can actually occur.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
Odd name for a movie store.
Anyway, I've returned a DVD because it wouldn't play on my computer. Not surprisingly, it was due to DRM. If the stores lose money trying to sell it, then they will stop carrying it.
Intron: the portion of DNA which expresses nothing useful.
Simply put, the user is too dumb to realize they even have a problem, let alone link it to DRM. Nobody knows what DRM even is, there is no awareness at all. 'nuff said.
As a side note: why don't the famous musicians dump their majors and start selling mp3s independently? I would suppose they'd earn much more.
Global warming is a cube.
Phone for support, act dumb. Drive that 75% up to 95%. If the cost of providing support exceeds revenue, maybe DRM will be dropped.
Once I was a four stone apology. Now I am two separate gorillas.
So why doesn't Apple do this? They talk the talk, saying they think DRM is harmful, yet all of their music is DRM'd, even from artists who don't want their music to be. And the article also says Musicload did this specifically because it's in heavy competition with iTunes, and thought it would give them an advantage (which it has). So when will Apple step up and allow specific artists to go DRM-free too?
And stating this isn't directly the entertainment conglomerates fault. It's a disingenuous game for sure.
I think the Entertainment conglomerates can plausibly claim at the PHB level, "there's no DRM standard and that's not our fault." This way they can maintain chaos and gain total control of the digital distribution channel when they pick a winner.
It also means that whoever is making these DRM schemes has to do a really good job creating code that has _lots_ of error condition controls. Which I just don't see anyone doing.
The end game is the media conglomerates to win unless the copyright law is meaningfully overhauled.
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I have given up on downloaded music these days, if I really like a band I'll buy a new or used CD, and definitely never use iTunes.
Next thing you know, we'll be getting out the microphone and rip a song right from the loudspeakers - oldskool.
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
Musicload is owned by Deutsche Telekom, who also own T-Mobile USA.
T-Mobile USA won't support non-DRM'd media out of the box (for ringtones!). I think a couple executives (and a few board members) are going to have to have a conference call and try to figure out DT's position on DRM.
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
Make the media more expensive. Drive out your own customers. Complain there aren't enough people in the known world to sue. Lather rinse repeat.
1) I buy CD from Amazon.
2) CD turns up, but is an "enhanced" CD.
3) The first CD I try it in (an old Redhat PC) doesn't recognise anything. The second (Windows XP) shows only something like "playme.exe", which I unsurprisingly decline to run.
4) I complain to Amazon, asking where the music is.
5) Amazon (it appears) don't actually read the email but send a replacement
Obviously I could have gone back to (4) again, except that in the meantime I'd found a PC that recognised it (more recent Linux distribution). I gave the duplicate to a friend.
Musicload's offerings are in WMA
DRM'd and sonically inferior? I can see why their customers are unhappy.
By all accounts I really should have some sort of semen related "Music Load" joke, but I can't think of one at the moment.
"Things are more moderner than before- bigger, and yet smaller- it's computers-- San Dimas High School football RULES!"
Fine, it was to be expected that DRM causes trouble. But what causes the other 25% of the support calls, which are not related to DRM? The DRM problems are easy to solve, just drop DRM. The other 25% are much more interesting and knowing them might help improve usability.
the label can talk all they want, but the bottom line is: "If the labels customers(retailers) don't buy their product, they go out of business.
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How do I fit the cd AND my coffee cup in the holder?
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
I am often surprised at how few people realize their DVD player's "problems" are, more often than not, related to Macrovision's content protection. I suppose technically it is an issue with the DVD player, since it's not handling the Macrovision stuff gracefully; but by and large the general public just seems to think that DVD players suck - and they blame the hardware manufacturer rather than the MPAA.
DRM needs to die. Its only real-world impact is to inconvenience those of us who try to do things legally - certainly the pirates aren't being overly inhibited.
#DeleteChrome
The record label.
IIRC this is what happened to George Michael.
If you're in for 4 albums and the first/two is/are good but you don't fit the coming demographic they don't want to let you go but they can make more money for less with someone else. So they have you record tracks for an album. The tracks won't "work" as an album, so more have to be done. But there's problems with getting your time booked. We'll sort it out. More tracks. More criticism and "please go and do better" and more blocks on booking time.
You're still waiting for your third and fourth album so you can move on. You may even get your third one out, but you'll never get to release your 4th. You're more valuable being kept away from the competition than you cost to keep hanging on.
I mean, nothing is simpler than just downloading the song you want. =) Until the musicians all get on mySpace and I can pay them directly, I will continue to pirate. RIAA death.
Apple doesn't "get it" because it's lawyers are perpetually concerned with annoying little flies, such as the RIAA, pulling their entire stock. What sillies, we all know the RIAA never wins cases! /sarcasm
(Or was it?)
Well, they are not the only ones. FNAC in france ( http://www.fnac.com/ ) already offers a pretty large catalog of unprotected MP3 music downloads, in addition to its standard DRM enabled WMA files. It seems that DRM is dying a painfull and slow death (not that any of this is relevant after DRM got cracked)...
Think of all of those (foreign) Customer Support personnel who will be thrown out of work when their company drops DRM. If it wasn't for DRM they'd be begging on the streets for the money to buy supper (not to mention music CDs).
Free Software: Like love, it grows best when given away.
I say its Windows/MS that is to blame. We need Apple and Sony's tech call records.
I just subscribed to http://emusic.com/. EVERYTHING they sell is DRM free, everything is sold as MP3. You can sign up for a trial and down load 25 songs. If you don't like it and cancel with in 2 weeks you get to keep the 25 songs for free. If you do like it keep your subscription. For $10 a month you get 30 songs. That's less then 35 cents per song, a third that cost of other online stores.
That's the good news. The bad news is that you won't find many major labels because major labels won't allow their songs to be sold in MP3 format. However, from over 2 million songs to look through, it didn't take me long to max out my downloads.
If you do sign up you can also find free tracks. For example, this 2 disk album with 38 songs will not count against your downloads http://www.emusic.com/album/10992/10992865.html/
Not only are the pirates proceeding full speed, the pirated media is superior to the original and hence more valuable. Examples:
Music -- No DRM, can play anywhere, any number of times, no restrictions.
Movies -- You can copy only the main movie so it starts up immediately without the need to even touch any controls. No menus, no half a dozen previews, no FBI or MPAA warnings. And absolutely nothing, anywhere, that is "unskippable".
Games -- No CD checks. No hunting through your house to find a CD just so you can play an old game that's already fully installed. No losing your purchase because the disk is damaged.
So, the current option offered to people who want to be legit is to buy overpriced stuff that's a pain in the ass to use and isn't as functional as the free pirate versions. What a surprise that so many people opt out of that deal.
If the RIAA listens to ANYONE, it will be to their retail distributors. And from what I know of the local-retail-music business, that's damn little already, tho still more than they listen to end users. And the RIAA can't very well accuse their retail outlets of being dirty internet pirates.
So... If local retailers stop carrying RIAA/DRM'd music, that sends a much louder message than anything that consumers, even collectively, could manage. And local retailers DO listen to their customers, because otherwise pretty soon they don't have any.
So instead of telling the faceless RIAA cartel (who couldn't care less what you think) why you no longer buy their product, tell your local retailer that you'd really like to buy $ALBUM, but you won't so long as it's DRM'd. THEN BUY SOME UNENCUMBERED MUSIC FROM THAT LOCAL RETAILER, so your favourite retailer sees that you're not just a cheapskate, you're really willing to buy good products, when they exist.
~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?