 |
|
|
 |
|
What's your reaction to this column? Share your thoughts on the MESSAGE BOARD
Also From Modern Humorist: Colin Powell's Pop Pals Dear Dick: A Letter From George W. Boredom in the Court Behind the Music Napsteropoly Macdonna's Wedding Box Set of the Year Rock 'n' Roll Factory Worker Phish Fan Resume |
|
Manuevers in MP3ville by Bob Lefsetz The consumer wants: 1. MP3s. 2. All recorded music available. At least the stuff in print. Preferably also the stuff that's OUT OF PRINT and that which was NEVER IN PRINT (e.g., unreleased/bootlegs). 3. The ability to transfer said MP3s to a hand-held device (e.g., Rio). And to burn CDs. If the above is offered to consumers, they will pay a reasonable price for it. However, record companies are planning on offering NONE OF THE ABOVE! Let's start with MP3s. Microsoft is trying to replace the MP3 with Windows Media Audio. This looks advantageous to some record companies. After all, WMA offers copy protection. Yet, copy protection messes with No. 3 above. Usability. But Microsoft isn't just LOBBYING for a change to WMA, it's taking behind-the-scenes steps to ensure it. The company told AOL to replace RealPlayer with Windows Media Player. It wants Windows Media Player to be the DEFAULT! This takes CHUTZPAH! For AOL is in business with RealNetworks. But forget that. First of all, one must realize the default ends up being the standard. One of the reasons Internet Explorer replaced Netscape as the market leader was that it was the AOL default. Oh, you can use Netscape with AOL, but most consumers don't even know this, never mind how. But it gets worse! In their negotiations Microsoft told AOL that it can't guarantee RealPlayer will work with Windows XP. This is bullying, and also unnecessary. Compatibility would be no issue if the company sent the specs in a reasonable time period to RealNetworks and didn't build incompatibilities into the system. But forgetting ALL of the previous, the new version of Windows Media Player, to be shipped this fall as part of Windows XP, DOES NOT COME MP3 READY! You see, in order to support MP3, Microsoft must pay a royalty to Thomson. Microsoft doesn't want to do this. (And it also doesn't want to do anything that will help MP3 in its war with WMA.) So the ability to rip MP3s has been left out. Oh, you can PURCHASE AND DOWNLOAD an MP3 plug-in. At least Microsoft made that deal with third parties two weeks ago. But when will they really be available? And will they work? And will the average person pay for, download, and install these plug-ins? NO WAY! Oh, Windows users could avoid Windows Media completely, and use a competing package that has full MP3 compatibility, but we're back to the download, install, and possibly paying route. Doesn't look good. So while Napster is down, and everybody thinks things are on hold, those at Microsoft are working like busy beavers to make sure they rule in the future. If only the record companies took this approach. Read the press. The MusicNet and Pressplay record companies have no intention of cross-licensing. Therefore, everything won't be available. This is a deal killer. How you gonna keep 'em down on the farm after they've seen Paree? On Napster, the music of all labels was available. Along with all kinds of stuff that was previously UNAVAILABLE! So customers are going to PAY MONEY for a FRACTION of what they used to get for free? NO WAY! There's an authentication procedure in Windows XP. You may not be aware of this. Here's the concept: Every copy of Windows XP is machine specific. Doesn't sound like a big deal, right? Today most people don't upgrade. They buy a machine with the operating system installed, and when it's time to upgrade to a new operating system, they buy a new computer. However, if you upgrade some of the parts in your computer, adding a board, stuff like that, there's a good chance that your operating system won't authenticate. You see, it communicates with Microsoft servers in the background. Validating the fact that you're an authorized user. Oh, if it's Microsoft's fault, if you did nothing wrong, if there's just a f*ck-up, then you call Microsoft. And you are given a 44-DIGIT NUMBER over the phone. Are you getting that? FORTY-FOUR DIGITS! 44! Talk about a pain in the ass. And until you get this 44-digit number and enter it, your computer is brain dead. Kaput. Doesn't work. |
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
