France vs Apple, Apple's response and my opinion

Some quick facts and information to provide background and context to the ground breaking copyright law passed in France on Tuesday, March 21st forccing Apple to let other portable music players that are not iPods play music bought from the iTunes music store.

First, "Format" is a term commonly used in the on-line music digital distribution world to describe a software program used to encode music for distribution/delivery. A format usually compresses music and then allow the user to listen it on a device that can play the specific software it was encoded in.

There are a numerous different formats used to encode music – MP3, WMA, AAC, ATRAC, etc.

Formats vary with different functionality, quality of sound, compression, digital rights management and other features.

For example, WMA has a feature that causes songs to stop playing after a certain number of days have transpired from the first listen ( called “timing out”). Apple iTunes AAC files limit which computers or devices can play a song bought from the iTunes' store, etc.

Now here is one of the more important points - NOT ALL DEVICES CAN PLAY ALL FORMATS.

For example, when you buy a song from iTunes, it downloads to your computer as a special type of AAC file that only an iPod - or other Apple device like a Nano or Shuffle - can play. No other non-computer portable media device ( like a Rio etc ) can play an AAC file bought from iTunes. The same holds true for any CD you rip via iTunes into the AAC format.

An analogy - imagine if you bought a CD and it only played on the CD player in your house but would not play in your car or on your friends CD player.

For devices that are not iPods, Shuffles or Nanos to play files purchased from the iTunes' stores or ripped from CDs as AAC files they would need to have a license from Apple that allows their device to play the music files. However, Apple does not license out this technology. Therefore the only devices that can play Apples' AAC files are Apple devices.

So what exactly just went down in France? A new law was passed that requires music to be able to be played on ANY device. All music must work on everything.

Apple response to this new law can be found here.

My opinion on this -

It is healthy for the music industry to have as many people as possible have access to buy music and use it the way they want.

It is also healthy for the music industry to have a standardized format so people can play their music wherever they want on whatever device they want.

If all music could easily be played on any device, it would help the music industry as there would be less confusion, easier use and more convenience for the music buyer.

With a standard format, more portable devices would sell, more people would listen to music more often and more music would be bought and experienced.

What is it the music buyer has bought when they buy music via an on-line download? If someone buys a song from iTunes do they own the song or do they ONLY own the song in the iTunes format?

When a music buyer purchases music from iTunes, Real, MSN, Walmart or any other on-line entity, it all looks, feels, tastes the same to the user. That is, they have bought a digital file – made up of binary code.

They are also able to convert the file from one format to the next with the simple proper knowledge and software program

The format within which the music is encoded is irrelevant.

The same type of devices – i.e. iPods, Rios, computers etc – can play a song and offer similar functionality. Whereas previously there was difference between what you could do with a CD vs. vinyl, this difference does not exist despite a song being in a different codec. Regardless of the codec, songs can still be: started and stopped with a single click, be fast forwarded to a later section, be included in playlists, burnt onto CDs, put in customized song orders etc.

I believe when a music buyer buys a song on-line they own the song not the song tethered to a specific format.

To add weight to this point, keep in mind that music buyers can convert any format into any other format they like provided they have the correct software – most of which is free and encouraged by the different on-line entities.

As the owner of spinART Records, I believe a simple standard codec will expand the marketplace, create more customers for each on-line store, drive portable device sales, create more on-line music buyers, generate more sales and revenue, allow more music to be discovered and experienced and generally create a healthier music buying environment.

I am very curious to see how this all plays out. Can you imagine the impact in the United States if this law was passed?

Comments

[Aubrey]

I've commented on this subject before, so to keep things interesting I'll take it in a different direction this time.

It'd be wonderful if I could buy a song and have it encoded to work with my digital identity. Imagine your identity is a bluetooth keychain that I take with me with a public private key exchange on it, and I can easily access files that are locked to only work with that keychain.

I can take my keychain anywhere; I can listen to my music wherever I go. All of the MP3 players are able to communicate with my keychain over bluetooth. When I buy some music, it's mine. On my computer I can copy it as many times as I like. I can play it as much as I want. If I don't have my physical key, I'm not trusted.

What does not trusted mean? Well, it means that it starts to treat me like DRM does right now. I can only play it so many times; I can only copy it so many times.

Maybe a three-tiered system like that could be successfully deployed. But does it solve the problem?

DirectTV's geeks had a wonderful war with hackers around the world in DRM. They'd release patch after patch, introduce new technology. In the packets were little messages to the hackers. They were able to stay ahead of the game because they used hardware. Of course, they were also able to stay ahead of the game because they didn't have to be compatible with 100 other set-top boxes.

Also, remember, one thing that makes Tunecore valuable to it's customers is that you understand all of these different formats and you're able to automate the conversions and business arrangements for us in so many different ways. In some lights, you could already been seen as our 'single format'.

All of these ideas go very deep, they ring into the technology-savvy people who'd use your service, and with the front-line small-time musicians who want to share their music with the world. Topics like these are of major interest to all of us. It's great that you address them.