Is not what it appears.

1. It’s a walled garden.  Only what is authorized can be traded.  All those
live tracks, alternative takes, they don’t appear, only label-authorized stuff
does.

2. The files are copy-protected WMAs.

I don’t get this.  The labels are so unhappy with Apple, so pissed off at
what a great job the company has done to bring the music industry into the 21st
century that they want to align themselves with MICROSOFT?  The most benevolent
company in America, an adjudged monopolist, that makes foolproof software
that everybody can depend on?  Like all those companies that ground to a halt as
a result of that worm last week, like DAIMLER/CHRYSLER?

Who is the real friend of the music business?  THE CUSTOMER!  Why the fuck
can’t the labels give the CUSTOMER what he wants.

But, as John Belushi would put it, NO!  They’re so paranoid they’ve got to
lock up the product in such a way that’s it’s just about USELESS to EVERYBODY!

Think about this.  You lay your money down for a subscription to this ISP,
and you can’t use the files you acquire, the songs you pay for, on your iPod. 
That would be like finding out the gas at the independent station won’t run in
your Mercedes-Benz.  WHAT THE FUCK??  I bought the best car out there, paid a
premium for quality, and this piss-ant company can’t even make compatible
FUEL??

The labels believe Apple is successful because of a monopoly.

But this is untrue.  Apple is successful because they made a phenomenal
product that they KEEP IMPROVING!

The iPod blows all competitive products out of the water.  Transferring music
to it is so easy a grandparent, a COMPUTER NOVICE , can do it.  Shouldn’t the
company be COMPLIMENTED FOR THIS?

No, the labels want to fuck with the company.

This is a company that added podcast compatibility, at no cost to ANYBODY
OTHER THAN ITSELF!

It’s not illegal to add podcast ability to jukebox software.  Real could do
it, Napster could do it, Yahoo could do it, MICROSOFT could do it, but since
there’s no obvious money in it, they don’t.

So, Apple’s the bully here?

As for the iTunes Music Store.  Can’t the labels get it around their
pea-sized brains that it’s a sideshow, about as important as summer stock is to
Broadway?  File-trading is where it’s at, not the iTMS.  P2P dwarfs sales at the
iTunes Music Store.  And, in response to this, labels want to fuck with Apple,
change the simplicity of the store by charging MORE (and less!)  I don’t give a
fuck.  Let them do it.  Then it will show how irrelevant the iTMS is.  Then
the sales there will dissipate and be replaced by…nothing.

As for interoperability, if only the fucks at the labels agreed to sell the
files the way they’re traded P2P, WITHOUT COPY PROTECTION!  Then this so-called
problem would evaporate, OVERNIGHT!

It’s so funny that the record companies fear a future that already exists. 
It’s like buggy manufacturers plotting how to stop the explosion of the car
market in 1920.  Huh?  GET WITH THE PROGRAM!

What, they’re worried that the people who PAY to subscribe to this U.K. ISP
are going to give the tracks to somebody else???  ALL THOSE TRACKS AND MORE ARE ALREADY FREELY-AVAILABLE TO ANYBODY WHO WANTS THEM!

The concept is good.  Authorizing file-trading.  Allowing people to take as
much as they want for one monthly price and dividing up the pool of money based
on what is traded.  But the implementation cripples the potential advancement.

Charge a fee at EVERY ISP.  Bless file-trading.  ENCOURAGE file-trading. 
THEN, everybody will acquire music, everybody will become a fan, and business
will blow up.  Across the board.  Labels will make more and musicians will make
more and everybody will want to SEE these artists so live business will
increase dramatically too.

What have we seen with technology in the last ten years?  The key is to hit
the financial sweet spot.  The price at which EVERYBODY can partake.  We’ve
seen it with computers, DVDs and cell phones.  They’re ubiquitous.  Oh, music
itself is ubiquitous, but very little of it is owned by the public, they think
it’s too expensive.  Lower the price of acquisition and they won’t.  MAKE IT
EASY for them to get music, right on their computers in their homes rather than
having to drive to a retail establishment.  And, don’t sell them LESS than what
they expect.  Don’t sell them a crippled file in a format they don’t want for
an exorbitant price.