01-23-2009, 12:00 AM
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Contributing Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 8,228
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Microsoft Brings Back DRM In UK's MSN Mobile Music
"Microsoft yesterday unveiled its MSN Mobile Music service - and a surprise return to digital rights management (DRM). While companies such as Apple and Amazon have finally moved to music download services free of copy protection, MSN Mobile locks tracks to the mobile handset they are downloaded to." What in the world are they smoking over there in the UK? You can't transfer songs between your phone and PC, the price is nearly double that of DRM free music from iTunes, and the music is not transferable to a new phone. I kid you not! You have to read the Q&A between PC Pro Magazine and Hugh Griffiths, the head of Mobile Music. This is not a question of will this service survive, but in how many months will it totally implode unless someone gets bopped with a clue-stick.  How many of our UK friends are chomping at the bit to purchase songs for £1.50. For those of us in the US, that is $2.21 at today's exchange rate. 
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01-23-2009, 02:24 AM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 1,043
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Sometimes typed words seem inadequate, when one wishes to expresses certain subtler responses to news items of the day. But, well heck, I'll give it a try....
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!
nope, not really adequate. Oh well. I've heard that stupid people have paid something like $3 for ringtones, so I suppose there may be a small niche (stupid people) market for something like this. After all, a few copies of that 'I'm Rich' application did sell to iPhone users before Apple pulled the $999 app, which did nothing but show a startup screen image of a big ruby. There are idiots with access to money, so go figure.
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Gerard Ivan Samija
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01-23-2009, 09:43 AM
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Thinker
Join Date: Feb 2005
Posts: 471
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Hmmmm.... �1.50 for a DRM-laced track or �3 for an entire DRM-free album off Amazon UK. Tough choices. 
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01-23-2009, 02:52 PM
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Contributing Editor
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 524
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Uggggggggggg
Just when I was thinking Microsoft was getting back on track with Windows 7, they run out and do something stupid like this!!!!!!!!!
The choice to use DRM is a great illustration of their disconnect with reality.
The exec's at Amazon UK must be smiling...or laughing.
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01-23-2009, 03:16 PM
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Theorist
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 274
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If anyone was in any doubt that MS has NO CLUE about how to progress in the mobile space, this is proof positive of that. Just last night I downloaded 3 oldies songs from Amazon for $.99 on my laptop, copied them to my Live Mesh, copied them from my mesh to my desktop and synced with my Omnia. With MS's solution I couldnt do that so what madness would motivate me to buy from them?
Think its about time we let MS know its time to get out of the mobile device/services world, they have no idea what they are doing.
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Back to being The Last Windows Mobile Fanboy - now with a Dell Venue Pro!
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01-23-2009, 04:24 PM
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Magi
Join Date: Sep 2005
Posts: 2,341
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It's sad......I have pretty much given up on listening to music. It's just too difficult to do any more. I'm not against DRM. The level of theft in the music industry is unbelievable. DRM is not the problem, and never has been. It is the way it is implemented. For me it just became to frustrating trying to keep DRM intact from one device to another. I GAVE UP. It was DRM methods just like this that led me down the path to where I am now....I listen to music on the radio. I spend zero dollars on music now, and I'm quite content. If I feel this way, I wonder how many others have silently stop financially supporting the music industry, who otherwise would get their music the honest way by paying for it?
Dave
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01-23-2009, 06:24 PM
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Contributing Editor
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 524
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Paragon
It's sad......I have pretty much given up on listening to music. It's just too difficult to do any more. I'm not against DRM. The level of theft in the music industry is unbelievable. DRM is not the problem, and never has been. It is the way it is implemented. For me it just became to frustrating trying to keep DRM intact from one device to another. I GAVE UP. It was DRM methods just like this that led me down the path to where I am now....
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Couldn't one identify DRM as the reason you stopped purchasing music? Wouldn't it be fair to conclude that DRM is the problem?
Don't be too kind here! Someone from Microsoft may be reading this. I don't want them to make Windows Mobile so that it only plays DRM files. Make sure to give credit where it is due. In this case, DRM seems to deserve the credit for you not buying music!!!
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01-23-2009, 06:40 PM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 1,043
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With the bulk of the music industry finally waking up this week and killing DRM plans, it seems rather obvious that their collective heads are being withdrawn from the sand. Finally, Apple and others are recognising that hurting their customers by limiting or even in some cases preventing their use of legitimately purchased music is not really a good business practice. Those who would steal will still steal. DRM of all types has proven long since to be 'crackable' and in fact the very presence of DRM locks has been inspiring to crackerz, who most often unlock such media simply for the pleasure of beating those who put the locks in place. Take away the DRM, remove one tasty bit of temptation. Of course theft/distribution of music will continue either way, but without the draconian and ill-fated DRM tools in place the materials in question become a bit less interesting to a segment of kiddiez who spend day and night looking for ways to waste their time, while hurting the corporate world. It's not about hurting musicians... well, mostly not. I mean there are some musicians who act like corporations, and spreading free versions of the 'music' of those 'artists' would seem a laudable goal in itself, you know, just to be annoying. No motivation in terms of listening, I mean...
Times are changing. The popularity of computer use to access more and more types of information over using other technologies, such as the radio, is constantly rising in all parts of the world. If the music industry does not keep up, there will simply be no music industry left. The mega-distributors are likely doomed anyway, but their resistance to change through things like DRM accelerates their demise. Giving customers what they want has usually been a good business model, and it's hard to imagine why music supply should be any different.
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Gerard Ivan Samija
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01-23-2009, 10:51 PM
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Swami
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 4,396
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Contradiction
Quote:
Originally Posted by efjay
If anyone was in any doubt that MS has NO CLUE about how to progress in the mobile space, this is proof positive of that. Just last night I downloaded 3 oldies songs from Amazon for $.99 on my laptop, copied them to my Live Mesh, copied them from my mesh to my desktop and synced with my Omnia. With MS's solution I couldnt do that so what madness would motivate me to buy from them?
Think its about time we let MS know its time to get out of the mobile device/services world, they have no idea what they are doing.
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First, one stupid decision isn't proof that they can't do anything (or most things) right.
Second, your own example contradicted your claim that it's time for Microsoft to get out of the mobile services world. Live Mesh is a mobile service (and more, perhaps).
Steve
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01-23-2009, 11:00 PM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 1,043
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And to hear a LOT of Linux users tell it, Microsoft got it very right when they pulled an all-nighter the other night to get Moonlight ready for Linux users, in time to stream the presidential inauguration. Very cool. They've certainly done a lot of things right. But with this DRM nonsense, and with the fairly firm rumours that they'll be chopping serious numbers of staff from their WindowsMobile division, it seems they're also still very capable of messing up.
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Gerard Ivan Samija
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Linear Mode
