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Now that's what I call buzz

Absolutely massive. Steve Jobs publishes a stunning post - "Thoughts on Music" - which calls for the end of DRM ... and the blogosphere erupts within hours of it being posted. It must make those trying to buy buzz at any cost (like the Windows Vista guys and the folks over at the NAA, see previous post) shake their heads ...
Today’s most popular iPod holds 1000 songs, and research tells us that the average iPod is nearly full. This means that only 22 out of 1000 songs, or under 3% of the music on the average iPod, is purchased from the iTunes store and protected with a DRM. The remaining 97% of the music is unprotected and playable on any player that can play the open formats. Its hard to believe that just 3% of the music on the average iPod is enough to lock users into buying only iPods in the future. And since 97% of the music on the average iPod was not purchased from the iTunes store, iPod users are clearly not locked into the iTunes store to acquire their music.

... The third alternative is to abolish DRMs entirely. Imagine a world where every online store sells DRM-free music encoded in open licensable formats. In such a world, any player can play music purchased from any store, and any store can sell music which is playable on all players. This is clearly the best alternative for consumers, and Apple would embrace it in a heartbeat. If the big four music companies would license Apple their music without the requirement that it be protected with a DRM, we would switch to selling only DRM-free music on our iTunes store. Every iPod ever made will play this DRM-free music.

Why would the big four music companies agree to let Apple and others distribute their music without using DRM systems to protect it? The simplest answer is because DRMs haven’t worked, and may never work, to halt music piracy. Though the big four music companies require that all their music sold online be protected with DRMs, these same music companies continue to sell billions of CDs a year which contain completely unprotected music. That’s right! No DRM system was ever developed for the CD, so all the music distributed on CDs can be easily uploaded to the Internet, then (illegally) downloaded and played on any computer or player.
Steve Jobs / Apple:
Thoughts on Music
— With the stunning global success of Apple's iPod music player and iTunes online music store, some have called for Apple to "open" the digital rights management (DRM) system that Apple uses to protect its music against theft, so that music purchased from iTunes can be played ...
Discussion: Thomas Hawk's Digital …, Don Dodge on The Next …, IP Democracy, Good Morning Silicon Valley, Open Source, Between the Lines, The Unofficial Apple Weblog, Tech Beat, Deep Jive Interests, New Web Order, Vindu's View from the Valley, InformationWeek Weblog, Jeffrey McManus, Guardian Unlimited, confused of calcutta, PaulStamatiou.com, The Next Net, InfoWorld Tech Watch, Gizmodo, Ars Technica, MacUser, Apple Gazette, The Technology Liberation …, Technovia, The Workplace Blog, The Tech Report, Paul Colligan's …, The 463, The Digital Edge Blog, TechBlog, The Future of Music …, Macsimum News, Jeremy Toeman's LIVEdigitally, The Last Podcast, Webomatica, Rex Hammock's weblog, Forward Thinking, Seeking Alpha, Business Filter, WeBreakStuff, Change Is Good, The Viral Garden, The Gong Show, BuzzMachine, Blackfriars' Marketing, Fast Company Now, Blogging Stocks, Buzzworthy, DeWitt Clinton, SearchViews, Paul Kedrosky's …, Listening Post, Geek News Central, PSFK Trend: PSFK, rc3.org, Life On the Wicked Stage, A VC, Slashdot, robhyndman.com, Joseph Scott's Blog, Podcasting News, UNEASYsilence, Paul Thurrott's Internet Nexus and Preoccupations

Related stories:

Martin Beckford / Telegraph:
Apple warns iPod users against Vista
— IPods could be damaged by Microsoft's new computer operating system, the company behind the popular digital music players has warned. — Apple, the long-standing rival of Bill Gates's Microsoft, is urging users not to upgrade their PCs …

Richard MacManus / Read/WriteWeb:
Steve Jobs Asks Record Labels To Abolish DRM
— Apple CEO Steve Jobs has posted his Thoughts on Music in the 'Hot News' section of the Apple website. He starts off by explaining the background to Apple's DRM on iTunes: … Fair enough, Apple had to play by the rules of 'the big 4' record labels.

Ryan Block / Engadget:
A letter from Steve Jobs on DRM: let's get rid of it
— iTunes, as we well know, is the world's largest online music distribution system; the iPod, of course, is the best selling line of portable audio players; and the pair are at the center of a very heated conversation …

Nick / Rough Type
Jobs calls for end to DRM
A while back I argued that the big record companies would be much better served by allowing the sale of downloadable songs without copy protection (ie, digital rights management, or DRM). Because DRM has little or no effect on piracy, the only one benefiting …

Tom Krazit / CNET News.com:
Staci D. Kramer / PaidContent:
This Just In: Steve Jobs To Music DRM: Drop Dead


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