An article today on C|Net called iPod undermines Microsoft on copy-locked CDs says that SunnComm has gotten a flood of complaints about Contraband, the new Velvet Revolver album, because it won’t play on iPods due to idiotic copy protection software. According to their representative, 80% of the comments they’ve gotten are compatibility complaints because the CD comes in the WMA format which won’t play on iPods1.
According to the article, the only reason that the entire music industry doesn’t support only Microsoft’s WMA is because iPods won’t play it. While I still maintain that a war over file formats is a stupid war, it’s interesting that by refusing to support WMA Apple has in a way defended we consumers from a copy-protected monopoly, even if only by forcing us to use one system over another.
But the lesson that record labels need to learn isn’t about which crippled file format to use, it’s that consumers don’t care about file formats. People want to buy their music and play their music. They want to be able to make copies of their music. Copy protection only stops legimitate consumers from being able to do things they should be allowed to do, like listen to music they paid for on mp3 players they paid for. Someone who doesn’t know how to get around copy protection2 isn’t the one who’s going to be burning 10,000 copies of an album and selling it on street. It’s the annoyed customer who just bought an album they can’t listen to who gets stopped by this technology.
According to C|Net:
[…] labels see the success of BMG Music’s Velvet Revolver disc, as well as a handful of other recent releases, as a good sign and say they’re now likely to go ahead with more experiments.
I’d hazard to guess that exactly zero people who bought the CD said, hey, have you heard about this new copy protection? I better get this CD and try it out. The success of Contraband wasn’t the DRM, it was the music.
If I go to the store and pick up a physical copy of Contraband, I buy a disc that I can’t make a copy of and can’t listen to on my iPod. It I go to the iTunes Music Store, I can buy a version that lets me do the latter but only lets me do the former seven times due to iTunes’s FairPlay DRM. That iTunes’ user rights are less restrictive than others doesn’t make it a good choice, just a slightly less crappy one.
Are these my only options: Buy the CD that BMG won’t let me use like I want to, or buy the iTunes track that lets me do it but restricts me (and is a lower quality file). Suppose that I were able to get enough people worked up over copy-protected CDs that I organized a sizable boycott. Would I be sending the right message to the record label? Wouldn’t I be hurting the artist in doing so? Sorry musician, I know you worked really hard on these songs, but because your record label decided to install some software no one’s going to hear to them.
Consumers don’t care about file formats. We don’t want copy protection. Stop trying to sell it to us.
Further reading: Cory Doctorow gave an excellent speech to Microsoft on this issue. Read it or listen to it.