FairUse4WM + Yahoo! Unlimited

FairUse4WM + Yahoo! Unlimited = the perfect music store.

I’ve opened an account to ‘test’ this and it works perfect. And having an unlimited monthly music subscription with no DRM just right for me. And I think this is going to be the only way for the P2P generation to start paying for music. I just wish the RIAA would wake up.

I’d also like to say The Yahoo! store (application) is awesome not better then the iTunes store but the best feature is playing music with one click. It has these play icons next to the artists and you can just sample a song or if you are part of the unlimited plan it just plays through them and then there are buttons to download albums and songs. Simple clicks instead of going back and forth throughout the clunky store.

The other issue is the WM DRM which is in big trouble. Unlike Apple how has a more closed system and could push out updates to the DRM and the players M$ cannot. They’d have to redo the DRM, make the stores use it and make vendors upgrade all the players; very unlikely. And it doesn’t look good for iPod haters because my speculation is the RIAA will stick with the closed model like the iPod in the future or worse the MPAA would go for the closed model.

Blog

September 02

Comments

 

About the Author, Dan Cameron:

I'm the owner and solution engineer at Sprout Venture, a web solutions company that specializes in web development including WordPress.

I started my first blog in 2003 and transitioned to WordPress in 2004. Since moving to WordPress I've written a few plugins and themes for public consumption. Lately I'm busy engineering/building/coding and have only been able to share a few code snippets.

If you're in need of some web development, web design or custom WordPress plugins and/or themes contact me, I'll be happy to discuss it with you.

Read More »

  • Dan
    http://crunchgear.com/2006/09/06/windows-media-...

    To prove they are already experiencing problems.
  • Dan
    What's with the article saying if you bought it through Amazon it came the same way?
  • I think the main big deal is that this is the first time (at least that I've heard of) that parts of albums sold on iTunes are being truly locked in to only being playable on Apple products - you can't burn to a CD, etc.

    I think it's a conscious cooperation between Apple and Sony to move towards this kind of enforcement of the limited use of the songs you buy. I could be wrong, of course, and whose idea it was, we may never know, but as Nathan mentioned, all 14 tracks are available on the CD that Sony publishes.
  • nstryker
    this is why i buy cds. :-)
  • Dan
    Yeah, I don't get the big deal about that post. And the way I see it it has little to do with iTunes but everything to do with Sony.
  • The last statement was a reference to stuff like this, which hopefully will wake people up to how restrictive a well implemented DRM scheme can be, in time to choose not to support companies who implement such systems.
  • Dan
    iTunes doesn't update your firmware, the updater does. But it will tell if you need to unlike the other music stores that just look to see if you have a audio player attached to the computer. Even Y! wanted to sync my iPod, proving that it's pretty dumb software.

    Yes, MS doesn't have to do anything other then to convince the vendors to push the update. That's the point, they can't do anything more. But when the RIAA looks at what has transpired and if the vendors don't push the updates in a non-disruptive way they may want to make changes or even worse just deal with a closed network like Apple.

    I don't get the last statement, they've got it locked up already. How could they make it worse?
  • Yeah, I wasn't aware that iTunes will automatically update the firmware on the iPod, if that's the case (which I'm still not clear on, based on what you said above).

    My main point was that Microsoft doesn't have to do it, the device manufacturers do, once Microsoft gives them the code. Will it be a slower process compared to a closed and automated system? Sure, it probably will, not that I'm in a hurry to get more restrictions added to my device.

    What I'm hoping is that Apple really jumps the gun (like it looks like they're leaning towards doing) and tries to lock down the DRM even tighter, because there are still enough alternatives out there that people can abandon Apple in favor of less restrictive systems.
  • Dan
    You're totally wrong, maybe because you're speculating. iPods work with iTunes and iTunes knows the firmware so the next time you update your iPod it tells you it is necessary to update you iPods firmware. Because there is no reason to update the firmware if you haven't sync the player or downloaded new DRMed music.

    If I had a Rio, Y! Music player wouldn't tell me I had to update my firmware to play the 'new' DRM.

    Probably one of the few good things about closed technology is control for the ease of the consumer. Let's not debate the cons and pros of closed systems, I'm just saying that since they are closed it's easier for them to update the system where-as M$ is going to have a tough time.

    Oh, and what about the players that play DRMed music that can't get updated? I don't know of any but car stereos come to mind.
  • The point is that if they have changes that break the implementations on the player devices, they (just like any company) will have to publish firmware updates, which are not automated, and are a pain for consumers to deal with. The fact that they're one company doesn't make it much easier than if MS gives the changed code to the various manufacturers that implement their DRM in their devices and have them handle publishing new firmware. Any delays that would be due to the coordination of all the vendors would be negligible compared to the delays (for any company, including Apple) in getting users to actually update their devices.
  • Dan
    That's the thing, Apple can push updates to their DRM, players and consumer players in one swoop. While MS would have to push this out to venders and it's up to them when they want to implement it. So while I buy msic through the Y! store it might not work for my WM player because the firmware isn't upgraded. Making it a hassle for everyone. Apple's been cracked plenty of times and they just run an update and noone ever notices, this is big because stuff will break and not work.
  • That is pretty cool.

    I don't think the Windows media DRM is in any worse shape than protected AAC (or whatever Apple calls theirs). In the event that they are cracked (which they all eventually are) anyone would have to publish updates to all the players. Sure, Apple has fewer models, but they have so many actual players out there, it would still be a nightmare.

    Any company (including Apple) would probably do the same thing: start using a new protection method and tell users that if they want to listen to songs protected using the new technique they will have to download a firmware upgrade. I don't think this is any more difficult for either DRM provider. It may be hard for the smaller companies producing players to publish firmware upgrades quickly, but most of the WMA players out there are (at least in any significant quantity) are from companies who can probably respond pretty quickly to that type of thing.
blog comments powered by Disqus