iTune iSbogus
Published by Jonathan February 26th, 2006 in Music, TechnologyThere has been much hype about iTune’s Billionth download, and many flames regarding Thomas Hawk’s blog entry on the topic, iTunes, One Billion Suckers Served. Kudos to Thomas for writing a brave, if misguided rant. In general I agree with him, but the real culprit here is DRM, not Apple. Check out iTunes iSbogus - they get it right.
Simply put, when buying from iTunes:
- The format is proprietary so you’re stuck using iPod (Apple’s real cash cow). Sure you can burn to cd, then rip to a different format, but why should you have to go to the trouble in the first place?
- The bitrate (quality) is 128kbps? Come on, that might sound okay on the Subway, but on your home stereo?
- The artist receives no more money than they would if you bought a CD.
One guy commented on Thomas Hawk’s blog, “Apple’s products are for people who have more money than sense.”
That’s right, because in the end Steve Jobs is just as evil as Bill Gates.
We school teachers are growing to HATE iPods in a different way: When students smuggled a CD player into the classroom, it was much larger and easier to detect! At least they were bulky enough to see hanging in a coat pocket, etc. These iPods are so lightweight and compact that the students can dangle them down their shirt collar, and cover the earpieces with a hand while they’re “studying” or taking notes. Someone should do research on this, included in the dumbing-down of America!