Comment True dat (Score 1) 651
If Apple didn't care you would be able to use FairPlay in other MP3 players and iPods would accept other forms of DRM. The raison d'etre for FairPlay, and the only reason for its continued existance, is to keep users shackled to iPods. Nothing more, nothing less. Apple cares because if people aren't buying FairPlay music from iTMS then their strategy is not working. Their ability to compete on grounds other than design and usability (in which nobody can touch Apple but things are rapidly changing) will soon go away.
I, for one, have over 2,500 tracks on my iPod of which exactly 7 are FairPlay that I got for free from iTMS (I forget why they gave them to me). The rest are from CDs I bought and ripped. In fact, I have 8 additional free tracks on my iTunes account which I have not used. I just hate to use them for music that I like as the quality generally stinks and I know I will not be able to take them with me when/if I switch to a different MP3 player. I save them for crap music my wife makes me download for her.
I think we are seeing a second generation of people who see all the shiny non-apple palyers available but know they cannot move because they would have to re-purchase all their music. These people are probably staying with Apple for the time being but are not about to dig themselves a bigger hole. As for new users, they are more educated on the insidious evil that is DRM and are probably avoiding it like the plague.
I, for one, have over 2,500 tracks on my iPod of which exactly 7 are FairPlay that I got for free from iTMS (I forget why they gave them to me). The rest are from CDs I bought and ripped. In fact, I have 8 additional free tracks on my iTunes account which I have not used. I just hate to use them for music that I like as the quality generally stinks and I know I will not be able to take them with me when/if I switch to a different MP3 player. I save them for crap music my wife makes me download for her.
I think we are seeing a second generation of people who see all the shiny non-apple palyers available but know they cannot move because they would have to re-purchase all their music. These people are probably staying with Apple for the time being but are not about to dig themselves a bigger hole. As for new users, they are more educated on the insidious evil that is DRM and are probably avoiding it like the plague.
