Apple’s Steve Jobs posted an open message to record studios on Tuesday, asking them to abolish security software that prevents music bought online from playing on different types of MP3 players.
Apple would “wholeheartedly” embrace eliminating Digital Rights Management (DRM) technology that prevents songs downloaded from its online iTunes music store from being played on iPod rivals, Jobs said.
Jobs urged the world’s major record studios to stop mandating Apple, Microsoft, Sony and other MP3 makers to bind music sold at their online stores with their respective players to guard against rampant duplication.
“DRMs haven’t worked, and may never work, to halt music piracy,” Jobs wrote in a letter on the Apple website.
Fewer than two billion DRM-protected songs were sold online worldwide last year, while more than 20-billion songs were sold on CD, which can be freely copied on to computers or digital music players, according to Jobs.
By the end of 2006, iTunes had sold an average of 22 songs per iPod, the most popular version of which has the capacity to hold 1 000 songs.
“Since 97% of the music on the average iPod was not purchased from the iTunes store, iPod users are clearly not locked into the iTunes store to acquire their music,” Jobs wrote.
“Perhaps those unhappy with the current situation should redirect their energies towards persuading the music companies to sell their music DRM-free.”
Jobs contended that Europe is home to much of the “concern” expressed regarding the exclusive union between iTunes music and iPod players.
He noted that the four companies that own more than 70% of the copyrighted music are European — Universal is owned by France-based Vivendi; EMI is British-owned; and Bertelsmann of Germany owns half of Sony BMG.
“For Europeans, two and a half of the big four music companies are located right in their backyard,” Jobs wrote. “Convincing them to license their music to Apple and others DRM-free will create a truly interoperable music marketplace.”
France’s Parliament passed a law in June of last year that cracks down on online piracy — and pressures Apple to open its popular iTunes Music Store to companies producing rival digital music players to its iPods.
But, in a concession to months of fierce lobbying by Apple, the law also contains a loophole that will allow the Cupertino, California, company to demand the right to maintain software blocks against competitors.
Other European countries are considering legislation guaranteeing interoperability.
Jobs’s open letter, headlined “Thoughts on music”, appeared intended to redirect the political and public ire at the major music studios.
Since Apple does not own or control any music itself, it licenses the rights to distribute music from others, primarily from Universal, Sony BMG, Warner and EMI, Jobs wrote.
A key provision insisted on by the music companies is that if Apple’s DRM system, called FairPlay, is compromised, Apple has to repair the breach quickly or song catalogues are yanked from iTunes, according to Jobs.
The best option is to “abolish DRMs entirely”, an alternative Apple would “embrace in a heartbeat”, Jobs wrote. — AFP