MSN Entertainment - Music: "How can I get MSN Music downloads to play on my iPod?
Unfortunately Apple refuses to support the popular Windows Media format on the iPod, choosing to only support their own proprietary DRM format. If you are an iPod owner and are unhappy about this, please send feedback to Apple and ask them to change their policy and interoperate with other music services.
There are more than 70 portable audio devices that support MSN Music today, and we hope that someday Apple decides to join with the industry and support consumer choice."
Ah. That'll be the 70% of consumers who have chosen to buy iPods then? (I was on a long train journey today and it seemed every other person was listening to an iPod).
The irony is, Microsoft's new music download service (like Real's, who are also pushing Apple to 'support customer choice) doesn't work unless you use the latest version of Windows. Could I sue, as a Mac user? I wonder...
Apple's iPod and iTunes work on Macs and Windows, and supports MP3, WAV, AIFF, MP4/AAC as well as the DRM-enabled AAC files from the iTunes Music Store. So much for consumer choice. MS and Real appear to be attempting to create a myth of incompatability. Sadly, so many people blindly use their products as they're automatically downloaded and installed, they might just win this one.
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2 comments:
Not true - MSN Music works great on Windows 98 SE. Also, Apple refuses to either a) license AAC/Fairplay to any other music services and b) support any other DRM format on the iPod. The ironic thing is that the company that makes the iPod, PortalPlayer, actually provides WMA support in the iPod firmware - Apple made them disable it.
Woo-hoo for Windows 98 SE users! I stand corrected though you only reinforce my point.
Apple "refuses to license" is a bizarre argument. I have about seven DRM-ed tracks out of 8615 on my iPod. The rest are AAC files, which is an open format, unlike the format Microsoft uses which is closed. I could (and do) use MP3 and WAV, as well as AAC. I can use Quicktime to convert from FLAC too, and there are a few other formats iTunes and the iPod support. It doesn't support Microsoft's proprietary DRM format, or Real's (except through a hack) but why should it?
Surely it's up to Apple to decide what it does with its technology? (And for the record, they will license it and do, but not with a gun to its head or as a result of PR-driven blackmail)
Interestingly, yesterday there were instructions on Microsoft's site that told you how to play music downloaded from their service on an iPod, but they are no longer there. It is possible, but MS have decided not to tell people that.
And what about commenting on the fact that neither Microsoft nor Real allow Mac users to use their services while still going on about consumer choice? This was my point, remember. You can't get around the double standards in this attempt to create a myth that by making legal digital music downloads viable in the first place, Apple have somehow damaged our rights! In what way am I losing out?
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