vedana.net

Muzak

I'm rather shocked, but Orlowski actually has a decent article up regarding Apple, the iTunes Music Store, and the pigopoly:

"Well, although it costs nothing for the record industry pigopolists, this small ragged army, to make a digital version of one of its hoardings available to hear, somebody must pay. It costs Apple real dollars to provide the hosting service that delivers that digital file to you, and to write the sophisticated software that delivers it. Meanwhile, almost all the cash is flowing back to the copyright holders. Who, when you last looked, were a dinosaur oligopoly of five record labels, desperately seeking a way to preserve their copyright cartel into a new century. They were down, and they were out: but Steve Jobs rode to their rescue."

While I <gasp!> agree with Orlowski somewhat, I can't imagine Jobs is this short-sighted. My take is that, like the XBox, it's initially all about mindshare - getting the masses comfortable with (and regularly using) the concept of buying music online, track by track. And also establishing a solid foundation for future innovation, such as distributing indie lables (Ottmar?), and other kickass stuff we haven't even thought of yet that's brewing in the Cupertino skunkworks.

[via The Guardian]

Update: Follow-up post at The Guardian: "This kind of low-margin tactic is well known in the computer business - it's long been employed by everyone's favourite monopolist, Microsoft, for years, as it has entered new markets in which it wants to build market share and deter rivals."