11-17-2015, 10:53 PM
M A V I C wrote:
I worked at a company that was doing streaming and DRM long before Apple got into the game. The reason Apple used DRM was not because they wanted to, but because they couldn't get the content otherwise.
Which would you rather have - Music with DRM or stick with CDs?
Which would you rather have - An iPod you can put music on but can't rip it off of, or no iPod?
Yeah, Apple made users jump through hoops. You've probably seen my posts here not understanding why I can't connect an iPod to my laptop and add music, then connect it to my desktop and add music... let a lone my wife's machine. It's not a great user experience.
But without Apple at least conceding some hoops to the label owners, we wouldn't be where we are today. We would either still be stuck with physical media or we'd still be stuck with so much DRM. The labels had to see how it would play out with DRM before they would take a chance without it.
Switching to Linux is an edge case. There's no way Apple is going to battle for that.
What about switching to Android? That's no an edge case. That's 85% of the market.
Your description about adding music on one computer and then adding it on a different computer being complex if not impossible is exactly my point. Most, if not all of the music is DRM free, yet Apple is still preventing you from accessing it. That has nothing to do with the record labels and everything to do with Apple. DRM music (and other content) could have easily been obfuscated in the same manner it is now, but the other stuff should be untouched. The iTunes tie in is not DRM in the traditional sense, you can legally circumvent using iTunes. However, Apple knows most people won't bother and the iTunes tie in is a powerful one.
Again, the iPod predates the iTunes Music Store, yet the transfer limitation has always been there. Go figure. I have a bunch of other non Apple devices that don't have the same limitation. Weird, eh?
P.s. Even if a music publisher that didn't want DRM, Apple for years prevented you from opting out of FairPlay on your own content. Again, this is an Apple issue, why else would Apple make all publishers use DRM? I'd switch over to eMusic and the same music would be DRM free (from the small guys, all DRM free well before Apple).