Not Everyone Is Happy With Apple Music
Published May 05, 2003
A number of reviewers really like the new Apple Music Service. I wouldn't know myself, not being an Apple-head, but the huzzahs are not universal:
- The dismal little online music shop that Steve Jobs opened on Monday has already received its share of lukewarm reviews.
One reader, describing the paucity of music available, compared it to "an airport bookstall, only without the gum and cigarettes".
It's certainly innovative: instead of taking out a monthly subscription to allow DRM infect your computer, Apple gives you the infection on the spot. No subscription is required: you can receive the disease at 99 cents per injection, until either your money runs out, or the Apple store runs out of contaminated music.
....One must not lose sight of the fact that share denial technology (DRM) is a subtle form of social engineering. It's a technology of social control that alters our behavior and expectations every so slightly. But these little alterations, you tell us, matter a lot.
....But one unexpected aspect of the service was brought to our attention by reader and Mac veteran John Maas, who discovered that the Puritan prudes find some titles too offensive to publish in their original form.
No, not Gangsta Rap: but one of the jazz greats. [The Register]
- Not Everyone Is Happy With Apple Music
- Published: May 05, 2003
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- Section: Sci/Tech
- Filed Under: Sci/Tech: Internet, Music: News
- Writer: Eric Olsen
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Comments on this articleComments
Good points Michael. I think what Apple is doing is a good start especcially for the RIAA.
Whining about the content in the first week of operation is childish and unreasonable.
"But they didn't have EVERY ALBUM EVER RECORDED - RIGHT WHEN THEY OPENED THE DOORS!" Waaah. Please.
Add your comment, speak your mind
(Or ping: http://blogcritics.org/mt/tb/5054)
The Register is a great site for news, but you have to filter it through a grain of salt to weed out their opinion. While I frequently agree with them and they're frequently quicker and more accurate than other sources, I've also seen them get a burr under their saddle for no discernible reason.
There's plenty of discussion out there about the Apple Music / iTMS shortcomings. Some people say the price is too high. Some say Any price is too high. Some people say the selection is too limited. Some people don't want anything with any DRM in it.
I think I can live with this level of DRM. It doesn't stop me from sharing music with my wife or backing up or transferring to a new computer. It lets me play on my iPod. It doesn't prevent me from playing AAC and MP3s that aren't protected and if I burn a CD, the protection is stripped, I'm really surprised that the labels compromised this much on what they'd allow.
Is the price too high? Maybe. I'd like it to be lower. I'd like the price of lots of things to be lower. They offer convenience, reliability, and a higher quality/lower sized and legal download than finding the same song via Limewire. I don't expect the price to stay where it is, but it doesn't bother me.
Selection is an issue. It's 200,000 songs of the same old major label crap that I don't listen to or buy in general. This will get fixed, some. But it's a problem they share with a lot of music stores.
As to the title obfuscation, it's not just Miles.
Elton John, Meredith Brooks, Kiss, Aerosmith, Prince, Lil Kim, Missy Elliott and lots of others are also B***hed, S**ted, or F**ked. If it was just Miles, I'd wonder if it was Sony.
I can't even tell what F**k You P**o by Quarashi is. Hmm, lets listen to the 30 second sample. While it has a red box marked explicit, the 30 second free samples don't ask if you're old enough to listen to them. The A Capella version of S**t on You by D-12 is not censored.
It's a start. It will do what most people want and has the music most people want.
If Andrew Orlowski is down on DRM because he sees it as being antithetical to Open Source OSes (and it is), then his beef is with the labels. Reading what he has to say about the RIAA makes it clear that it is. He makes me seem soft on the RIAA.