iTunes and The Digital Music Industry On April 28, 2003 Apple revolutionized the music industry by creating the iTunes Music Store. For the first time consumers were able to purchase digital music that was immediately ready for download onto their iPod mp3 players. However, since the start songs downloaded from iTunes have protected by a digital rights management (DRM) scheme known as fair play. Soon after Apple opened their store several other companies opened competing stores, each with their own unique DRM scheme. Most DRM schemes automatically assume that the consumer will try to illegally share music and enforce rules to prevent this. Apple restricts back up copies by only letting the song be copied to seven computers. They also restrict the file format to their proprietary ACC which makes iPods the only compatible device. Perhaps the most interesting restriction is that Apple reserves the right to change at any time what you can do with your music. They have already exercised this right by reducing the number of copies from ten to seven several years ago [1]. There are several competitors who have modeled their distribution after Apple. However, Napster 2.0 takes a very different stance on digital music distribution. They charge customers a monthly subscription fee and allow users to stream and download as much music as they want. However, if customers want to copy music to their mp3 player, or burn songs to a CD, they music pay extra. Napster also uses Microsoft's WMA format for their DRM scheme which makes Napster incompatible with the iPod. Both Apple and Napster are United States based companies and therefore must abide by our laws. However, a Russian website called allofmp3.com offers DRM free music.... ... middle of paper ... ... technologies, but a huge potential for profit exists if they leveraged their vast amounts of data into an online music store. Smaller, independent music companies are currently reaching out to last.fm to discuss this very idea. The future of digital music has many hurdles to overcome. Right now users are locked into a store and m3p player combination that allows the consumer no freedom of choice. While some record companies are exploring the concept of releasing DRM free music, the reality is that for the foreseeable future, DRM is here to stay. However, steps can be taken to open up DRM schemes and allow users the fair use rights that have been previously established by the United States government. Several companies are also exploring Web 2.0 concepts that could truly revolutionize the music industry and forever change how we listen to and discover new music.
According to the text A Gift of Fire, Napster “opened on the Web in 1999 as a service that allowed its users to copy songs in MP3 files from the hard disks of other users” (Baase, 2013, p. 192, Section 4.1.6 Sharing Music: The Napster Case). Napster was, however, “copying and distributing most of the songs they traded without authorization” (A Gift of Fire, Section 4.1.6 Sharing Music: The Napster Case). This unauthorized file sharing resulted in a lawsuit - “eighteen record companies sued for contributory infringement claiming that Napster users were blatantly infringing copyrights by digitally reproducing and distributing music without a license” (Communications Law: Liberties, Restraints and the Modern Media, 2011, p. 359).
What trends in networking in the 1990’s and early 2000’s drove the popularity of Napster? What other technologies contributed to Napster’s success?
Illegal digital music swapping is something that millions of people do every day, even children in the elementary school age range know how to “torrent” music from the internet. The definition of illegal music swapping is a very loose statement, since the DMCA (Digital Millineum Copyright Act) has guidelines that vary for different types of file. For instance a digital music file encrypted using the Apple DRM (Digital Rights Management) might receive more protection from the DMCA than a file that is encrypted with the Microsoft Windows Media DRM. DRM determines whether or not the device that the file is being accessed by meets the requirements for that file. In the application iTunes if your computer is not authorized to play music purchased by another user of the iTunes Store, the DRM in iTunes will detect this and will not allow you to play the song. DRM also covers a song released in one particular format for a particular player from being used for another player application, such as an iTunes DRM protected file will not play in Windows Media Player, even if the codec (language used to decipher different types of video and audio files such as .mp3, and .wma) is supported by a player the content has the DRM embedded inside of the file itself.
Not long ago music and movies were simpler. Music was played on the radio for free but you would not get a say in what was played and there would always be ads, for concerts you would pay to go and for CDs you paid for them. However, while some people copied CDs and gave them to friends, this was as far as piracy got (Arrington, 2009). Piracy is the unlawful reproduction and redistribution of intellectual property, without the permission of the original owner (NiDirect, n.d.). Intellectual property describes the works of the human mind such as music and films that are created or owned by a person or group and protected through copyright law (Reynolds, What is Intellectual Property?, 2015). With technology now more efficient than
• There is pressure on Apple to increase the price of its music download file, from the music industry itself. Many of these companies make more money from iTunes (i.e. downloadable music files) than from their original CD sales. Apple has sold about 22 million iPod digital music players and more than 500 million songs though its iTunes music store. It accounts for 82% of all legally downloaded music in the US. The company is resolute, but if it gives in to the music producers, it may be perceived as a commercial weakness.
Spotify’s Time. (n.d.). Music Business Journal Berklee College of Music RSS. Retrieved May 21, 2014, from http://www.thembj.org/2014/05/spotifys-time/
The iTunes Store, originally the iTunes Music Store, is a software-based online digital media store operated by Apple Inc. It opened on April 28, 2003, and has been the biggest music vendor in the United States since April 2008, and the biggest music vendor in the world since February 2010. It offers over 26 million songs, 700,000 apps, 190,000 TV episodes and 45,000 films as of September 12, 2012. As of June 2013, the iTunes Store possesses 575 million active user accounts, and serves over 315 million mobile devices, including iPods, iPhones and iPads. Source: Wikipedia (2013). iTune Store. Available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITunes_Store. Last accessed 06/01/2014.
There are two main key issues when dealing with Apple's digital music player market. The first issue consists of Apple maintaining its digital music player market share. The second issue pertains to whether or not Apple has a niche music player by not licensing its technology. Apple has a substantial market share consisting of 60% of the digital music player market when only 11% of the U.S. population owns digital devices. In order for Apple to maintain its major role in the digital player market it must consistently maintain its innovativeness over other digital music players in the industry. Apple not licensing their technology and creating a niche music player could hurt them in a market where consumers may want to use their device to its full potential.
When the online music sharing industry was evolving there were a lot of opportunities for great innovation but there was also opportunity for laws to be broken. In 1999, a music sharing website called Napster was founded that raised a lot of ethical issues ...
One important change that has occurred is the distribution of music digitally. Music now in our society is purchased through the Internet. The simplicity of having an entire library of music on one device has been adopted versus having stacks of CD’s or tapes. The emergence of the Mp3 file has changed how we listen to music. Mp3 are digital songs that are portable, provide high quality sound, and are less expensive. Essentially by eliminating middlemen, digital music took control of music away from the major record companies and put the power in the listener’s hands. Major companies such as Apple’s iTunes created the distribution of digital music. CNNMoney mentions, “iTunes is currently responsible for 63% of all digital music sales” (CNNMoney). They set the standard of 99 cents for a single song, which was quickly adopted by major music companies. Selling songs by singles provided more control ...
Many well-known artists including Taylor Swift are against Spotify and have her music catalogue removed from Spotify, because by letting people listen to your music for free you undermine the value of art. But Taylor Swift is one of not so many artists that could pull such thing off and still remain popular. After all, her removing her catalogue from Spotify was a huge scandal and one of the most important happenings during the last year in the music industry. This move of hers affects Spotify in a bad way, as she was one of the most popular artists on spotify and her songs were on 19 million playlists. It is also thought that taking her music catalogue from Spotify could be related with her own record label, Big Machine’s sale. As instant income from digital music download could be financially more beneficial, and increase value for her record label more than, “steady streaming” income. But for such popular artists like Taylor Swift, such streaming model earns millions. According to Spotify real life artist who wasn’t named was earning $425,000, per month for a hit album that was on top charts. And that category surely
Over time the form in which we listen to our music has drastically evolved. Going from vinyl records, to tapes, to CDs, to mp3 downloads, and most recently instant streaming. Although technology becoming more advanced has helped our society to grow, the music industry has found it difficult to grow and advance with the change while still being profitable. Starting with tapes people would share their music, making mixed tapes for their friends or family. This continued when artists started putting their albums onto CD’s. It was easy for anyone to get a great new album for free as long as they had one copy of the album. This is called pirating music, it is violating an artist's rights which are secured by a copyright (the free dictionary). Pirating
Music on the Internet is another big issue among consumers and the artists that compose them. Napster was the biggest site for downloading mp3’s, but was shutdown because of a big push by the rock group Metallica.
To conclude, digital music has become a large asset the music business. Music downloads continue to grow rapidly but so does the traditional distribution channels like cds and vinyl’s. It seems that people have their own personal preferences when it comes to music purchases. Whereas some people would prefer cds, others prefer having their music collection on a small music player or an app on their phone where they can stream instant music. There are issues when it comes to music piracy but laws and incentives are put into place to stop this and try to protect the music business. The future of music will continue with streaming, purchasing downloads, cds and vinyls until another revolutionary idea is created.
Now let’s flash forward back to present day when all that doesn’t happen anymore. Instead of saving of our money and begging our parents to take us to the store to buy a newly released album, we simply get on our computer, go to a website and download the album for free. It doesn’t matter what website it is, whether it is Limewire, Frostwire, or Pirate Bay, people will be happy with their free album. There are still some kids to this day who enjoy going to the store and buying and listening to an album the old-fashioned way but we have to wonder how bad things will get as more and more people are getting equipped with the Internet and the use of downloading music. While the internet might be making life easier for all, the growing use of downloading music on the Internet is growing into a detrimental and illegal problem.