Well, this is an entry on a surprising statement from Apples CEO Steve Jobs posted yesterday, challenging the music industry to abandon DRM (copy protection) on digital music downloads. The tactic is of course self-serving but nontheless Steve Jobs has some points to make. It's a wellwritten essay and an intriguing and aggressive strategic move on the part of Apple. I think that Steve Jobs just took over the music industry with his statement yesterday and gave Microsoft a big fuck you.
He outlines three possible futures for digital music:
1: Keep going as things are now with each manufacturer competing freely with their own “top to bottom” proprietary systems for selling, playing and protecting music.
2: Apple licenses FairPlay to other companies.
3: Sell music online without DRM Abolish DRMs entirely - according to Jobs, this is clearly the best alternative for consumers, and Apple would embrace it in a heartbeat.
Jobs’ statement is clearly self-serving; the company has faced criticism and legal battles from several European nations over its monopolization of digital music formats. Nevertheless, Jobs move demonstrates his intuitive mastery of public relations, redirecting criticism of Apple’s mnopolization of digital music to the record labels and their licensing restrictions.
And this is now I could draw similar references to the spin-tactic as practiced by the danish primeminister Anders Fogh Rasmussen... but I won't, even though this technic seems to work on all political levels. And in this case Steve Jobs is on our side.
So as long that Jobs and Apple don't forget what's good for us is good for their business, I think it's something we can all live with.
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