DRM stands for "Digital Rights Management" and it means the funky computer voodoo that prevents you from playing iTunes on on a non-Apple player, or prevents you froom making copies of certain CDs. In short - some mechanism that "manages" the rights of the copyright holder.

BBC NEWS | Technology | US Yahoo offers copy-free music

Is this a stupid move on Yahoo's part? Or smart?

One thing that keeps Apple's cash flowing is that when you buy an iPod it only plays DRM-protected files that are bought from iTunes. Yes, it can play unprotected MP3s as well, but if you bought music from Sony's online store, for example, you couldn't play it on your iPod without finding some way to defeat the DRM.

If Apple wanted you to be able to play those tracks, it could allow your iPod to play them But it doesn't, on purpose, because it's counting on music companies making restricitve DRM deals with other music-selling sites which means an iPod owner is shut out from those sites and must turn back to iTunes.

Now, people will be able to buy tracks from Yahoo and play them on ANY device. Which means the market for those tracks includes iPod owners.

Quote:"Our position is simple: DRM doesn't add any value for the artist, label (who are selling DRM-free music every day - the Compact Disc), or consumer, the only people it adds value to are the technology companies who are interested in locking consumers to a particular technology platform."

Precisely. The music industry realized that Apple really got the upper hand because of DRM. Of course, they didn't care at the time because they only thought DRM would hurt the consumer. Now they realize that their previous deals may not have been smart for the label either.

-JP

(BTW - despite that quote, Yahoo is only releasing one track DRM-free to see how that goes. But I found it interesting that they acknowledge that DRM only has helped the technology companies up to this point.)

Tagging right on to this -- Microsoft is going after the iPod.

Is that the silliest business move anyone could picture Redmond making? Their OS is delayed past the holiday season so they push out an iPod-wannabe? Who in the world is going to buy that? And what does a BSOD look like in the middle of a Madonna track?

That has nothing to do with Vista slipping. Did I post that article here about why their OS releases ALWAYS slip, and usually multiple times?

George was not saying that the iPod-"killer" was the reason for the OS slip, but that they were pushing this thing out ahead of the OS release.

It occurs to me that an innovative company always wants its competitors to be gunning for a product to kill their LAST product. iPod killer? What about Apple's next idea? Microsoft has always been good at stealing ideas and getting them to a wider audience, but they dropped the ball on music content. Apple got a sweet deal. Maybe the future is different, but they're going to need something better than an iPod wannabe to make a splash.

-JP

Uh, yeah, what he said.

Honestly, I wasn't talking about Vista except to say that it is MSFT's big hope and instead they seem to be wasting precious public relations resources on an MP3 player. I don't care how cool it is.

There is a ton of great data running around the blogsphere right now showing how Google ranks 3rd or 4th to 7th in most categories it enters except search. Even gmail isn't denting the giants yet. I think it's 4th there. So yes, you can roll out lots of product outside of your core competency or you can focus on what you do well.

Then again, as JP pointed out, one thing Microsoft has always done well is absorbed already established technology and gave it a bigger audience. I just don't see them ever surpassing Apple on this one. Maybe they're convinced, though, that the pie is big enough for two.

I didn't like Microsoft in the hardware business when they did accessories, and I damn sure didn't like 'em in there with game systems. This just seems like a bad business move to me.

LOL. And here I was figuring Microsoft was covering the repeated Vista schedule slippage with a product they might actually get out the door soon.