Who has more power, the major labels or Apple Computer?

Bottom line, is Apple going to play nice with Sony BMG, are they going to
employ/adhere to the copy protection scheme the record label is now using to
encrypt its discs.

The backlash is just beginning.

Now Amazon, which doesn’t sell a whole hell of a lot of CDs, but which many
people use as a reference tool (as is in finding what to download!), now STATES
that discs are copy protected, it’s not like the label can hide this fact,
like they did with Anthony Hamilton.

Then there was last weekend’s story in the "Washington Post".

And now people are buzzing about it on the Web.  Sony BMG has woken up a
sleeping giant, the American public, for whatever burns they’re going to
eliminate, they’re going to pay a much higher price in ill will as a result of this
failed scheme.  Guess Andy Lack just doesn’t know what it’s like to be a fan,
wanting to take your music EVERYWHERE, not wanting to buy it on disc AND at the
iTunes Music Store so it can sit on your iPod.

The iPod.  It’s a juggernaut.  The coolest/must-have device of the teen set. 
And any baby boomer who doesn’t have one is just out of the loop, no one in
their circle has one YET.  And, when podcasting truly hits, BOY will there be a
revolution…music you want to hear, that you can FAST-FORWARD THROUGH!  And
Apple’s got the most seamless solution for that.  But, the point here is
statistics.  The iPod dominates.  And is continuing to do so.  By not playing with
Apple, the labels are demonstrating heretofore unknown hubris.  (Then again,
they HAVE demonstrated continuing ignorance for the last five years…)

Bottom line, if you use a PC, you cannot import songs from copy protected
discs in iTunes, you can’t create a file that you can transfer to your iPod, you
can only create a copy protected WMA.

Now if you’ve got an UNPROTECTED WMA, iTunes will convert it into a format
the program can read, which you can transfer onto your iPod. (Only with a PC, if
you’ve got a WMA on your Mac, you’re fucked.)  But, if the WMA is copy
protected, you’re shit out of luck as an iPod owner.

So, I ask you, are the major labels that powerful, are they such a driving
force that they’re going to CHANGE THE MARKETPLACE?  Drive all music to
Microsoft, make Creative the biggest seller of hand-held MP3 players?  Can Phil
Jackson make the Lakers win the NBA Championship next year?  No, can the KANSAS CITY ROYALS WIN THE WORLD SERIES THIS YEAR??

I mean you’ve got to play in the REAL WORLD!

iPod owners are the MOST dedicated music consumers, they’re going to throw
out their iPods and purchase inferior players for a couple of hundred bucks? 
Never going to happen.

So why doesn’t Apple just bend.  Make iTunes WMA compatible…

Let me ask you, would you give Microsoft, an adjudged monopolist with an over
ninety percent share of the desktop market, a LEG UP??  I mean what’s the
advantage to Apple?  They need to make the LABELS happy?  It’s NOT ABOUT the
labels, the iPod doesn’t depend on the iTunes Music Store, if you think people are
filling up their iPods with AACs they’ve bought at the iTMS you just can’t do
the math.  They’re stealing the music, ripping it…

WHOOPS, you can’t rip your CDs anymore.  You paid in excess of ten bucks for
the disc and you can’t put the tunes on your iPod, HOW FUCKING HAPPY ARE YOU
GOING TO BE!!

Well, what you’re going to do, which is what everybody IS doing if you’re
paying attention, reading the reports on the Web, is just go online and STEAL the
music they paid for.  So, Sony BMG is actually DRIVING P2P theft!  How
fucking nuts is that?

Or, of course, you could have thrown in with the future to begin with.  You
could be a Mac user.  The discs rip just fine in iTunes on a Mac.  Which means
not only can you burn CDs ad infinitum, you can upload files via P2P services
to EVERYBODY!  And insiders know it’s VERY FEW people who seed the P2P
services with the tracks that are traded by millions.  Just a couple of Mac users
uploading and your goal has been EVISCERATED!

Oh, that’s right, Sony BMG’s goal is to stop CD burning.

Please, PLEASE Sony, get me to stop using my Mac Plus.  Get me to stop using
my Smith Corona typewriter.

But my Mac Plus is in the closet.  And my Smith Corona typewriter is in the
garage.  Both essentially worthless.

I’ve moved to files.  The whole WORLD is moving to files.  Don’t Andy Lack
and Michael Smellie have any FRIENDS?  Never mind with KIDS?  CURSORY field
research would tell them they’re headed in the wrong direction here.