Jason Preston
Writing

Start from the solution

Jason Preston · 4 min read ·

There’s a lot of interest right now in DRM, digital audio, and the record industry.

That’s understandable since now is the time that DRM file formats are being established, personal audio devices are coming into their own, and music is generally (finally) beginning the official transition to digital format.

The problem is that everyone is looking at DRM from the wrong direction. There are several DRM formats available now, and several differnet services available (or launching) for consumers to “consume” their music digitally. Everyone is busy criticizing the existing schemes when we should be busy telling people what we would ideally want. Then we can find out what needs to change to get there.

Here’s what I would like, ideally, from my digital music and devices:

  1. I want to purchase music. Subscriptions don’t feel right - I feel like I’m paying for radio privilages

  2. If you do offer a subscription service, it must have a very complete library. I mean Beatles to Jem to Mylo to AC/DC to Goldfinger. Anything I want to listen to had better be available.

  3. I want my music store to be integrated with my music player. I also want my portable audio player integrated with my music player

  4. I want to be able to play my music on any buyable device going forward. There’s no point in buying music I can’t listen to after six years

  5. I want to keep my music in two places, but be able to access it from everywhere. One copy on my portable player, one copy on my main computer. As long as I can prove that it’s me, (password?) I should be able to access my main library from any number of places, on any kind of device

  6. I want to be free to move my music between devices as I choose. If my hard drive is wiped, I should be able to restore it from my portable device

I’m pretty sure that’s it. That’s what I want to have in terms of music in the digital age.

If you look at that list, it looks like Apple has gotten fairly close, which is probably why I use iTunes, the iTunes music store, and an iPod. But Apple fails miserably on numbers 4, 5, and 6. Apple has and always will be entirely proprietary.

Unfortunately, songs purchased on the iTunes store come in Apple’s format, which plays on Apple devices, under Apple’s rules. I already have a media extender designed to find audio files on a network and play them, but because it is not an Apple product, I can’t play songs I’ve bought on iTunes.

This is stupid. I shouldn’t have to throw away a $300 box and buy one made by Apple just to play my music. So Apple needs to open up it’s format. There’s a lot to win just by having the standard format - just as Sony - so you might as well open it up (which will open up your market considerably as well). This is particularly true if Apple’s format is the best format for digital media, which it might be.

Number five is going to take a new media player, or a new look at Apple’s DRM. I understand the reason for DRM. Millions of people are essentially (if not in name) stealing music. Like it or not, music is a product that really should be paid for on some level. The fact that the record industry suffers from the worse corruption and morals than most drug cartels doesn’t change that reality.

I don’t know how the technicalities should go, but essentially I should always always ALWAYS be able to listen to my music. If I have more than five devices I’d like to authorize music (say I have more than five rooms in my house, and I want to be able to play music in all of them) I should be able to do that. Just because most people will never have this dilemma doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t be possible.

Number six just makes sense. I think that the iPod is the only device that doesn’t automatically offer it. Ostensibly it’s to keep me from giving away my music, but it really just locks me out of my own library. And yes, I have been in that situation before. When I was in England my external hard drive died and the only copy of my music was on my iPod. Having to hack into my mp3 player to restore my music is nuts.

So that’s my list. I hope the market drives the music industry to open up.