Universal to join EMI on iTunes Plus?

[MacBytes]

http://www.macbytes.com/images/bytessig.gif (http://www.macbytes.com)

Category: Tunes
Link: Universal to join EMI on iTunes Plus? (http://www.macbytes.com/link.php?sid=20070608090127)
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Posted on MacBytes.com (http://www.macbytes.com)
Approved by Mudbug

[wrldwzrd89]

Bah. Short article that just mentions a rumor about Universal, and doesn't even say where the report in question comes from. Plus, I thought Macworld didn't report rumors :p

[Mudbug]

Actually, the fact that MacWorld didn't report on rumors was one of the main reasons I greenlighted the link - perhaps they have some info that doesn't make it quite so much a "rumor" and instead makes it "this will happen shortly."

[jettredmont]

It appears the move may have a price - flexible pricing, allowing Universal more control over the cost of its music through iTunes.

That would ruin it for me. I'd rather wait a few more months for Plus songs than break the single-pricing model. The simple pricing is a primary reason why I use iTunes! Any song I hear out and about, I go into iTunes knowing just how much I'll spend to buy it, and generally buy a few more tracks while I'm there. Steve, stick to your guns!

On the other hand, this might be talking about album pricing instead of song pricing, which is already pretty broken, but I generally don't go to iTunes looking to buy an album anyway. Still, were all albums (or the vast majority of them) priced at $9.99 I'd more often go to iTunes to download albums my friends rave about instead of getting physical media for those.

The simple pricing model is one of the absolute top innovations of iTunes. I know the RIAA members hate it. But that doesn't make it a bad idea! They hate lots of things which bring in mountains of sales (see cassette recorders, see digital downloads, etc). The RIAA is like a 2-year-old who is the size of a full-grown adult. You need to watch out for them before they walk out into traffic and end up splattered across the front of a bus.

[shamino]

FWIW, the MacWorld article has been updated. Universal has explicitly said that the rumor is false.

Of course, it's also well known that they would never confirm any such rumor even if it was true - they'd keep any such decision secret until the minute they officially announce it. To do otherwise would have all kinds of negative impact on sales and stock prices as people delay purchases awaiting DRM-free versions.

Personally, I'm betting that Warner Bros. will be the next to go. IIRC, they never dabbled with copy protected CDs, so probably aren't as religiously bound to the concept of DRM.

Update

After doing some web searching, it appears that some Warner titles were released with copy protection, but that they were isolated examples. In contrast, Sony/BMG and Universal appear to release almost everything on copy-protected discs in Europe and Asia. (Which makes me doubly glad I have a Mac - those autorun rootkits don't affect me.)

[Loge]

I think they will all follow eventually, but I'm betting on Sony/BMG being the last of the major labels to offer DRM free songs.

[winmacguy]

Universal are now denying the reports.
http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/index.cfm?RSS&NewsID=18238