Steve Jobs just posted this essay in his Apple blog:
http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughtsonmusic/
It makes for interesting reading. In essence, Jobs says, “If you big music companies stop making us use DRM, we’ll stop requiring it.” The numbers Jobs uses does make the whole DRM-for-iPods thing sound academic, against the massive exchange of music that bypasses DRM altogether. That makes we consumers hope there’ll be a mass throwings-in of towels and the end of DRM altogether.
What Jobs doesn’t mention is how this might affect iPod sales. By not mentioning it, he implies he doesn’t really consider it a problem–which further implies his confidence that iPod sales won’t be affected because people buy them not to comply with DRM on already-purchased (or to-be-purchased-through-iTunes) music, but rather on the sheer merits of the iPod, and presumably future iPods and iPhones.
That’s refreshing! I like the idea that Jobs values competition and, staring it in the teeth, has no fear of losing market share even in the face of losing a few shreds of market protection. This is the crux of the argument, of course: DRM even now is just a shred of armor, barely matters to even 3% of what’s out there digitally. So in a sense, Jobs can look at the iPod market domination and say, “Hey, we already won, it’s practically a free market anyway, and the iPod rules!”
In that way, Jobs is stating he has nothing to lose: he can side with the NO DRM crowd (related to the “all music should be free” crowd, they’re cousins), thereby making Apple look neutral in the debate. And in this debate there is no neutrality, so it shifts the burden of DRM squarely onto the big record companies.
I suspect a stance like that will sell more iPods.
–Peter
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