Jump to content

"Thoughts on Music" by Steve Jobs


Ryst

Recommended Posts

  • Members

agree with 99% of what he says, but pretty funny that he never cops to the fact that the closed ecosystem is a huge competitive advantage for iPod. it (closed eco) isn't working for Zune because they're trying it too late, without enough available market share, and a crappy product, but it's been a boon for Apple.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I think it is only fair to point out that Jobs and Apple were the first to crack this issue successfully. The only possible way they can offer a service is to assure protection to the copyright holders. I really don't understand why everyone still complains about this. If you want free access, simply by the CD from a store or online- no DRMA involved!

 

I have two friends who are members of well known national bands. Everytime one of their CD's is illegally copied they lose real $$$$. I think the artist should be protected, but if you don't, go by the CD and copy it all you want!!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

 

I think it is only fair to point out that Jobs and Apple were the first to crack this issue successfully.

 

 

To be fair, the Audible DRM sytem and contracts with audiobook/audiodrama/spoken word programming publishers under that DRM predate fairplay..it was and continues to be a successful technical and distribution model

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Again, I'm with you on this one. I still buy CDs because then I can do whatever I want with it, which is often ripping it to my Zen portable player. Oh yes, and I back up my Zen's library religiously!

 

I also have a nifty little Sony RAM portable player and often rip to that as well when I want something really small and light to take with me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

{censored}, im about to fully rip my whole collection into a MCE computer and be done with them, put em in storage or something. just burn compilations for the car.

 

still deciding to rip 16/44.1 WAV or Windows Lossless.... i know i have MP3s mixed in with them anyway. but drives are SO CHEAP. i just picked up a 500GB drive for $150! terrabyte for $300?!??!!!!? i might rip my dvd collection in too [which is getting bigger than my CD collection]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

You know what he's talking about is scrapping Apple's proprietary DRM system. The system was developed for a reason, but has served its purpose and it's time to move on.

 

It makes no sense to lock down the windows and leave the door wide open. Let's be clear - piracy is piracy, and stopping those guys fits under existing laws. But allowing legitimate consumers to freely share enhances music sales. I bet if somebody did a study, they would find that people who share the most music files by trading mp3's also purchase the most music.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

 

Again, I'm with you on this one. I still buy CDs because then I can do whatever I want with it, which is often ripping it to my Zen portable player. Oh yes, and I back up my Zen's library religiously!

 

 

But then we have the problem of "Just this one song", and I'll admit it, I thrive off singles to some extent. Maybe 4 or 5 albums in my collection have 50% good material or more on each of them.

 

I guess you could say I'm a picky SOB, but that's never going to change. There's this underlying disappointment every time someone mentions an album to me, and that's why I buy less and less music every year (most of it tends to be old hits anyway). "Yeah they're great"... No, usually they aren't. Who to blame but myself, though?

 

Now when you start talking about CDs that haven't been manufactured in a decade but still have incredible music, the price usually shoots way up. They may become collectors items of a sort because the only stock left is what was made quite a while ago, and when that's gone... It's gone.

 

With digital there's no manufacturing and as long as the rights are present, you can get pretty deep into a back catalogue and have an older song cost just as much as a new one. There's still a lack of obscure titles, though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

According to my local radio this is all a reaction by Jobs to Norway and other European countries who are demanding that all DMR tracks be playable on all machines otherwise they will ban i-tunes and other online distributers like msn, zune etc. This was of course his option 2.

 

I personally accept his option 3 as the most sensible.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

This post may be a little off the subject of copy protection, but I feel this is the best thread to vent a little.

 

Mass produced CD's have been around since the early '80's with a resolution of 16 bit 44.1k. Now we have corporations selling individual songs at a dollar per pop online. That's fine - isn't technology great!!! Twenty seven years later we're now able to buy an inferior product - MP3. As a musician (keyboardist) I'm all for seeing artists getting paid for their work, but if you want me to pay for a song on the internet, at least offer it at 16 bit 44.1k as well as MP3! There are millions of computer users with high speed internet access. Just because Apple advertises "over a billion sold" doesn't mean their product is great... just go down to your local "hamburger joint" and you'll know what I mean. If anyone else feels this way, let me know.

 

It would be great if artists could all just do everything themselves and bypass all the greedy corps. giving back pennies on the dollar and deciding (with absolutely no ear) what's good or not for you & I to listen to. It'll slowly happen, but it's a long road. I could go on and on...:mad:

 

Geoff

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

This post may be a little off the subject of copy protection, but I feel this is the best thread to vent a little.


Mass produced CD's have been around since the early '80's with a resolution of 16 bit 44.1k. Now we have corporations selling individual songs at a dollar per pop online. That's fine - isn't technology great!!! Twenty seven years later we're now able to buy an inferior product - MP3. As a musician (keyboardist) I'm all for seeing artists getting paid for their work, but if you want me to pay for a song on the internet, at least offer it at 16 bit 44.1k as well as MP3! There are millions of computer users with high speed internet access. Just because Apple advertises "over a billion sold" doesn't mean their product is great... just go down to your local "hamburger joint" and you'll know what I mean. If anyone else feels this way, let me know.


It would be great if artists could all just do everything themselves and bypass all the greedy corps. giving back pennies on the dollar and deciding (with absolutely no ear) what's good or not for you & I to listen to. It'll slowly happen, but it's a long road. I could go on and on...
:mad:

Geoff

 

I understand what you are saying, but in addition to music, the sale also factors in convenience. Sure you can download a 16/44 .wav, but one song is going to be 30-40 megs, and even at high speed it would take 15 minutes or more to download a three minute pop song.

 

Nobody said McDonalds is great food, but you don't see people taking every meal at Tavern on the Green or Spago's.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Billster,

 

I understand your point but wave file downloads should still be an option. It doesn't take that long to download 30 to 40 megs and I could choose to compress the file myself if I want. The cost of storage isn't that big of an issue anymore. Apple was updating iTunes every other week it seemed for a while & it was approx. 35 meg. and only takes about 4 minutes to download. Don't get me wrong I think the convenience is great, it's the quality (a step backward) that's my issue.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I'm with Pilot Wings. My PC is my main music center period. All the CD's that I have gotten around to loading are ripped at 16/44. I do buy 40 mp3's from emusic for 9.99 per month. I view it as a bargain bin subscription service. However, I would gladly pay 20 per month for 16/44 or better yet 24/96 or 24/88. Whatever. Harddrive space is cheap, bandwidths are improving. Downloading wavs and storing on a PC is no longer an issue, that can't be cheaply corrected. It is very upsetting to me that there is no high quality audio subscription service's out there. The only one I've seen offer's highend WMA formats, but I'm skeptical of that format. I don't care about the DRM thing with itunes, cause I don't buy my music from them. I only use their software. Whatever, happens the most important thing is that people actually buy music rather than steal music. How they go about enforcing that will continue to improve over the years, and probably will make life easier for the honest consumer in the long run.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

While I'm at it. I think .99 / per song is a fair price if you were buying CD quality music. Think about it, right now you pay .99 for a tune or 10.00 for an album with low quality audio, no CD packaging expenses, very minimal info (basically only player credits) and a jpeg of the album cover not much more than a thumbnail. When you could go to a CD store and buy Cd's for 10 to 16.99, and get all the neat little packing and extras. The way I see it paying .99 for an mp3 is equivalent to paying 1.10 for a bottle of water. They suckered us didn't they?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

 

The way I see it paying .99 for an mp3 is equivalent to paying 1.10 for a bottle of water. They suckered us didn't they?

 

 

What they are selling is convenience.

 

Of course you can buy a gallon bottle of spring water for 75 cents, but do you carry it around everywhere you go?

 

As for liner notes, look at Craig's February editorial thread. The internet is the perfect place to put detailed liner notes for fanatics to download.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

 

What they are selling is convenience.


Of course you can buy a gallon bottle of spring water for 75 cents, but do you carry it around everywhere you go?


As for liner notes, look at Craig's February editorial thread. The internet is the perfect place to put detailed liner notes for fanatics to download.

 

 

Well yeah you're right. But its getting to the point where marketing folks can basically sell us anything (crapola mainly) based on convenience and we the public are buying it hook, line, and sinker. Its getting old, IMO.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I agree with you Jim. Bill maybe you just like to argue or maybe you can't hear the difference in which case sound quality isn't an issue. I prefer to progress not regress... no 8 track tapes for me! Hamburgers, songs, bottled water or gas mileage, I'm sure we'd disagree. The world is round & revolves around the sun no matter what you may think.:rolleyes:

 

Time to go make some music:thu:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...