RTP-area local music and culture

[ron thigpen <ron AT fuzzsonic.com>]

Nathaniel Florin wrote:
> --- stablenet AT nc.rr.com wrote:

> > Apple doesn't care if you use a Rio or an iPod -
> > they will sell you an MP3 regardless. 
>
> Unfortunately this isn't exactly true. The iTunes
> Music Store sells you MPEG-4 AAC (Advanced Audio
> Coding) files which have a Digital Rights Management
> code built in that, among other things, only allows
> you to play them on an iPod (though you can burn them
> to a generic audio CD as well).

That's right, Apple's iTunes Music Store (iTMS) doesn't sell MP3s.

MP3s don't have DRM, iTMS tracks most definitely do.  They are encoded 
to a different format MPEG4-audio (M4A) and then wrapped up with an 
Apple-owned Digtial Rights Management (DRM) protection layer.  Adding 
this wrapper converts them from the relatively open M4A format into the 
very much closed format M4P.

Why?  It's the only way Apple was able to convince the major label 
content providers to agree to let them sell their music online. The 
major labels just aren't (yet? hopefully) willing to sell music on the 
net in non-DRM forms.

If Apple were willing to license their M4P technology, then Rhapsody 
could offer pay-to-download tracks in that format.  Apple currently has 
the lead in the DRM platform dominance race and has decided on a 
strategy of not licensing its technology.

Which effectively means that if a service like Rhapsody wants to sell 
downloadable major label tracks, it only has one choice of format: 
protected Windows Media Audio (WMA) files.  These files don't play on 
iPods, and I'm not sure, but I doubt if there is any support in iTunes 
and maybe even the MacOS platform in general.

So what Rhapsody has done, and what Glenn is talking about, is to focus 
on their streaming audio service instead of download service.  Using the 
stream service, you don't buy and own the songs, you buy a monthly 
service that allows you to play the songs from the net.  And until 
recently, this required a piece of downloadable client software from 
Rhapsody that wouldn't run on a Mac.  But they've just released a 
variant of the service that can be run directly from a web browser, 
which does work on a Mac.

I've been tempted by this service myself, but have been waiting for 
someone to integrate the new Rhapsody stream service with the SqueezeBox 
software so that I could control these streams through my little digital 
music devices and conveniently listen to them through the big stereo 
rather than the computer speakers.  But that's another story.

--rt