Apple Music Store: The New 8-Track Tape

Ramblings

from the not-so-good dept

DRMsux writes “It seems there are a lot of glowing reviews of the new Apple music store. For an alternative view, John Kheit criticizes the Apple Music Store: “In a nutshell, the Digital Rights Management (DRM) doesn’t strike a comfortable balance, at least not for me. The lack of discounts, lack of higher quality encoding, re-encoding requirements for device/content mobility, cumbersome DRM quirks, and monopoly reliance put a damper on an otherwise pleasant music purchasing experience.” He brings up some interesting points on the long term value of monopoly controlled copy protected music vs. Open Source: “Should Apple’s great music experiment fail, it’s not likely it will maintain a DRM infrastructure to allow you to enjoy and move your purchased content from one system to another in the years to come. In other words, there is the very real possibility that when you buy from the AMS that you are buying into the new millennium version of the 8-track tape.” This brings up the issue of how does Linux fit in with Apple’s Music Store? If you want to make one of your three machine’s a Linux box, or use it outside of iTunes on the Mac or Windows, it seems you are out of luck? “