Another thought on music

About 3 days ago I first read the article written by Apple's chief executive Steve Jobs. It is named Thoughts on Music (A Chinese translated version is here) with which Steve Jobs expressed why he believes those ideas of, thinking Apple's iTunes + iPod model is monopolistic and dominating the market inappropriately, is actually inappropriate.

Many know that some European countries, such as Noway, have been lashing out at the model of iTunes online store + iPod, buffing that it caused unfair competitiveness. To fight back, Steve Jobs explained that the tie between iTunes and iPod is not something that Apple imposed. Instead, it is what the the world's top record labels ask Apple to do.

According to Steve, the reason is that:

Since Apple does not own or control any music itself, it must license the rights to distribute music from others, primarily the "big four" music companies: Universal, Sony BMG, Warner and EMI. These four companies control the distribution of over 70% of the world’s music. When Apple approached these companies to license their music to distribute legally over the Internet, they were extremely cautious and required Apple to protect their music from being illegally copied. The solution was to create a DRM system, which envelopes each song purchased from the iTunes store in special and secret software so that it cannot be played on unauthorized devices.

To prevent illegal copies, DRM systems must allow only authorized devices to play the protected music. If a copy of a DRM protected song is posted on the Internet, it should not be able to play on a downloader's computer or portable music device.

Steve Jobs argued that Sony and Microsoft are doing the same thing, making musics brought from their online stores, i.e. Sony's content Store and Microsoft Zune Store, to be playable only on their own devices.

He also listed out some solutions to change the status quo:

1. Apple to license its FairPlay DRM technology to current and future competitors with the goal of achieving interoperability
2. To abolish DRMs entirely. Imagine a world where every online store sells DRM-free music encoded in open licensable formats.

He believes that abolishing the barrier completely is "clearly the best alternative for consumers, and Apple would embrace it in a heartbeat".

I reckon that Sony and Microsoft used to think about that too. But probably Apple's Steve Jobs is the only one who mused about how to convince the record labels to break down the normative DRM rules, even if they thought that guy is flat-out silly. I guess Steve will continue working diligently on this further with inherent passion.

It might be a great timing for Microsoft and Sony to join Apple to take on record labels?