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Napster Digital Rights Management (DRM)

Regarding WMA vs. AAC... I have tried both thanks to Napster giving me 5 free songs. On my PC w/a SB Live card and BA 745 2.1 speakers there is a slight but noticeable difference in AAC's favor. I am not an audiophile, but there seems to be more range (lower lows and higher highs w/AAC).

Of course, something must be wrong with my downloads because I have had no problem playing them on my iPaq 2215 w/WM9 which, based on the link provided by ARN, shouldn't be able to play the files. 😕

Not my problem much longer... an iBook or eMac is in my future REAL soon.
 
For me this is like 'so?'

Why do I say that?

I have iTunes Music Store, and an iPod. Why change? to use Napster how I use my current setup I have to go out and buy a new MP3 player that is harder to use.
 
Slight differences in DRM or the WMA v AAC debate are going to be irrelevant in the near future. In order to stay in business, Napster and the rest are going to have to come clean about the realities of using a download music store.

- Each store has its own style of DRM but apart from marginal difference, DRM is effectively a necessary and similar evil for all stores.

-Because of choice of DRM each store will only support a limited number of digital music players for direct downloads from their store.

-In order to expand their market share of music downloads, stores are going to have to advertise to the world that basically ANY digital MP3 player can play any downloaded tune from ANY store as long as the download is reripped into MP3. Therefore the quality of the search, buy and download experience is going to be far more important than say the number of tracks available from any particular store, (For the most part the track count will be fairly similar amongst the big boys - one goes ahead, the rest catch up).

- In order to sell their digital players, manufacturers are also going to have to advertise the same universal fact, ie a decent MP3 player can play any download as long as the track is ripped into MP3 or other format supported by their player. Therefore the quality of the player´s functions becomes more important than the fact it recognises the drm-ed tracks from any particular store.

This is what I believe Apple know has to happen if the catch up kids are to stay in business in the long term. At the moment the opposition are bluffing and trying to be cute, but just selling their own DRM-ed tunes to theshare of the market not controlled by Apple right now is a sure road to death. Likewise limiting sales of own brand MP3 players to your own customers simply because you want to try and discredit iPod is another foot shooting exercise.

Unfortunately for the rest of th ecatch up kids, because the world will soon understand that any download track froma store can theoretically be played on any MP3 player, sales of digital players will again be judged on function not compatability with direct download services - and we all know which is the king of that little castle.
 
I don't think most people are going to want to bother re-ripping their songs as MP3, a process that requires burning to CD first. They will want a portable player that handles whatever DRM their music incorporates.

This DRM war really sucks because iPods won't play WMA and WMA players (for the most part) won't play AAC. It's like the whole Beta vs. VHS thing all over again. After you collect a bunch of music in one format, you would never want to get any in the other format. Not so bad as long as both kinds of players are available (forever).
 
Originally posted by iDave
I don't think most people are going to want to bother re-ripping their songs as MP3, a process that requires burning to CD first. They will want a portable player that handles whatever DRM their music incorporates.

This DRM war really sucks because iPods won't play WMA and WMA players (for the most part) won't play AAC. It's like the whole Beta vs. VHS thing all over again. After you collect a bunch of music in one format, you would never want to get any in the other format. Not so bad as long as both kinds of players are available (forever).
Click to expand...

I agree that right now most people are thinking just what you say, but the point Im making is, the reality of this new concept of buying music will become clearer and the DRM scenario will be more like Betamax AND VHS

Any music downloaded from an iTunes type store is essentially no different from the music bought on a CD from a store - ie both formats have to be re-ripped if you want to listen to and manage that music on ANY digital music player.

I dont see people with CD collections saying, "Sod iPod, I have to re-rip my whole music collection to use an iPod." Its the opposite isnt it. People are falling over themselves to change the format to suit their iPod.

So its only a mindset thing right now about being averse to whichever store on the basisof DRM compatability. It´s just a matter of time before people realise that yes, it is incredibly convenient to download AAC tracks from iTMS straight onto their Apple brand MP3 player - the same as putting a new CD straight into a CD player is ultra simple - but as most people will expect the freedom to buy music from any sort of iTunes store, and listen to it on any MP3 player it will become blindingly obvious that a simple re-rip (just like CD to MP3) will answer all their questions.

And Steve Jobs I am sure knows the drm war will become irrelevant and the competition will be back to what it was pre iTunes for Windows - the best digital player will win regardless of whether people have to re-rip their original music to use it.
 
Originally posted by billyboy
So its only a mindset thing right now about being averse to whichever store on the basisof DRM compatability. It´s just a matter of time before people realise that yes, it is incredibly convenient to download AAC tracks from iTMS straight onto their Apple brand MP3 player - the same as putting a new CD straight into a CD player is ultra simple - but as most people will expect the freedom to buy music from any sort of iTunes store, and listen to it on any MP3 player it will become blindingly obvious that a simple re-rip (just like CD to MP3) will answer all their questions.

And Steve Jobs I am sure knows the drm war will become irrelevant and the competition will be back to what it was pre iTunes for Windows - the best digital player will win regardless of whether people have to re-rip their original music to use it.
Click to expand...
Trust me. When I eventually have hundreds of albums in Protected AAC format, I won't be burning them to CD in order to rip them back to another format just so I can buy a different music player. Likewise if I were a Napster 2 fan and had hundreds of WMA format albums, I wouldn't do that just to buy an iPod. Whatever format people choose now, they will likely stick with it forever. (Sure, there's a SMALL percentage that will go to that trouble and don't care about double lossy degradation. Not me though, and not most people, IMO.)
 
Here i am sat thinking for a second and it dawns on me you know iDaves got it right people tend to find what they like and stick with it no matter what it is saying that i liked windows *Shuders * now i like Mac....

id buy and iPod too but i dont have firewire and my pc has all the slots filed oh well
 
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