Life is grand

Not to be a Steve Job’s fan boy but he understands my needs when he says I want to “own” my music and not rent it.

It is not the legal side of renting music that bothers me so but rather the technical side. You need to connect with a server every now and then to keep listening to your library of music. If you don’t the music stops playing. Not only do businesses come and go but the standards and systems they support change. They don’t always provide an easy path from one system to another either (Microsoft recently dumped their Plays For Sure system with the Zune system. Your Plays For Sure music won’t play on a Zune.)

I doubt very much that a library of music I rent now will continue to work as is in 10 years time. There will be breaking changes between now and then.

The same is true with DRM stamped media.

At least as a technically savvy user I know I can keep my non-DRM, non-rented music library playing for as long as I want. As changes happen I’ll either find tools or make tools that bridge the change.

It will be a lot harder to bridge the change with a rented or DRM stamped library.

I think all the proponents of DRM free music, the ones who say eMusic and AMIE St. and co. are great even though they don’t have 3/4 of what is in my CD pile, the ones who refuse to buy from big labels… these people should admit that, rightly or wrongly, the past few decades have seen a very successful campaign by music companies to shape our tastes and make us want what they sell. I bought the Arctic Monkeys because I like them. I can’t get them from eMusic or AMIE St. I have to go to iTunes or my local CD store. Or I have to pirate, but I won’t do that, it just gives the RIAA more ammo.

Yes, I want DRM free music. Yes eMusic has some great content. No eMusic does not have everything I want. Right now a lot of the bands I like are DRMed up to the hilt. In a decades time DRM will be a joke, a historical blip and a free market will reign. Till then keep your eyeballs from rolling please and be patient.