Universal Offers iPod-Resistant Music

dprovine writes "Universal is now offering music through Spiral Frog as free downloads supported by advertising revenue. But according to Daily Tech, the files being offered won't work on iPods. 'The move to not allow its content to be played on iPod's appears to be a clear snub by the Universal Music Group, similar to NBC's recent move of its television content from iTunes to Amazon.com. Apple has not commented on this development. For many, though, SpiralFrog.com presents an intriguing new business model that may present a legal alternative to file sharing or spending large amounts of money on CDs or paid download services, such as iTunes.'"

Comments

Like selling screen doors to submarines....

[Shoeler]

Now Universal just look like idiots. One can easily argue the business sense of delivering content in a price-controllable way. Business 101 - when the demand increases, limit the supply and profit by increasing the prices, or changing the delivery mechanism to make more money on the same supply. Demand for downloadable music has increased while CD sales decreased, thus the allegory.

The stupid part of this idea is removing 70-80% (the share of iPods in the portable music market) of the market for your product. Just try to buy a gas station and switch to only selling ethanol and see how well that works if you need an example. The phrase shooting one's self in the foot comes to mind, but the recording studios seem good at that.

United States of America and Canada only

[cerberusss]

Our Apologies. At this time, the SpiralFrog Web site is available only to residents of the United States of America and Canada.

No problem guys, apologies accepted! I know some Russian sites that happily cater to the western European crowd :-)

Re:not mp3!

[douthat]

It should be noted that the Slashdot editors changed the title of the article from "Universal Offers iPod-Resistant MP3s" to "Universal Offers iPod-Resistant Music"

Re:How can it not work?

[Coopjust]

Not really an MP3, the Slashdot summary (and the line in the article) are misleading. Quote the SpiralFrog website:

Can I transfer the music I download to a portable device?
SpiralFrog is compatible with portable music players and music phones that support Windows Digital Rights Management (DRM). Look out for devices that prominently display the "PlaysForSure" logo.

So, they're not MP3s; they are WMA files with DRM. This is a nonstory.

"iPod's"

[Anonymous Coward]

The move to not allow its content to be played on iPod's appears to be a clear snub by the Universal Music Group

Played on iPod's what?

Re:Won't play on Zune either...

[syrinx]

Well, guess we'd better find both Zune owners and give them the bad news.

Where Apple is NOT competing

[CommandoCody]

Okay. There is a very very simple reason why FairPlay will never work with anything but iPods. iTunes exists solely to sell iPods. It makes little to no money for Apple in the first place - some have said that it operates at a small loss for Apple, after the content suppliers' cut is removed. What possible reason could Apple have for letting anyone put that music on a Zune or any other mp3 player? Is the suggestion they should do this as a public service? Should they include free ponies, too? Once again, let's review. Apple is a HARDWARE company. Its OS and content exists to sell more HARDWARE. If there is no incentive for the customer to use that hardware, Apple would be a company of fools to give away everything else.