Monday, October 30, 2006

iPod cracks
From UK site The Register...
"As we reported three weeks ago, reverse-engineering specialist "DVD" Jon Johansen has decoded the encryption that locks down iTunes-purchased music - and he's formed a company to license this to all-comers. Now Johansen has reverse-engineered rival DRM formats, permitting encrypted songs purchased from Apple rivals to play on iPods.

The music business is likely to be rejoicing - it blames a market divided into incompatible DRM silos for the less-than-spectacular adoption of digital downloads. Despite all the hype, digital sales won't surpass CD sales until 2014, based on linear growth rates. And despite claims that they're being robbed into penury by "pirates", the music industry finds unexpected ways of profiting from its assets. The ringtone business, for example, grossed $75bn for operators last year - double the global revenue of the music industry."

Read that last sentence again.

P-Money sold over 6,000 ringtones last year. Who needs gold singles?


On a similar note,...

"EMI Music [UK] Chairman and Chief Executive Alain Levy Friday told an audience at the London Business School that the CD is dead, saying music companies will no longer be able to sell CDs without offering "value-added" material. "The CD as it is right now is dead," Levy said, adding that 60% of consumers put CDs into home computers in order to transfer material to digital music players." Link.

Value-added material, like the bonus features available with DVDs for the last 5 years?

1 comment:

thewalker said...

unfortuantely value added has often meant either a crap video, that will only play on crap software, and is actually there to try to stop me transfering the music to digital.

ie most "enhanced" cd's

hows this for value added: a cd with digital copies, with no copy protection, in a lossless digital format. this will educate the public about the quality loss they are experiencing with mp3. or even with mp3 files, ready to transfer.

or would that be too sensible?