Wired Gets EMI DRM Story Wrong
In an "analysis" on Wired.com (here) writer Eliot Van Buskirk calls Microsoft the big looser in the EMI Apple hookup for DRM free downloads. Wired’s reasoning is that "…The
decision to use AAC represents a crack in the wall that has separated services and devices that use
Microsoft’s WMA from those that use AAC…Apple and EMI’s embrace of AAC spells an unlikely defeat for Microsoft…"
But EMI did not embrace AAC. Only Apple did. EMI stated clearly on Monday that within weeks other download stores will begin offering tracks as mp3’s and WMA files. In fact, in a recent speech EMI head
Eric Nicoli called the company "agnostic" when it came to formats.
How could the venerable Wired get it so wrong? When will they pull the story or at least issue a correction?
I was a bit confused when I read that article. Maybe it wasn’t expressed properly, or maybe I misunderstood the argument. Seems that Wired claims Microsoft is a loser because AAC will be preferable to WMA. But Zune’s proprietary format is not WMA, and Rhapsody has already moved forward to its own alternative to protected WMA. WMA looked to be on its way out long before EMI’s announcement. And you’re right, EMI is not going to sell DRM-free files in just the AAC format, iTunes will.
I think Eliot of Wired was trying to say that since Apple, who is the most popular source for legal downloading, will now be selling DRM-free AAC files, this will therefore influence others into making their players compatible with this standard. Because now people can buy DRM-free AAC’s off of iTunes and them synch them to their non-iPod mp3 player(not sure about the Fairplay part, though). I think that is where he was going with the article anyway.
There is an article in Billboard at http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3i0346d0e3c620cccea968aa5865a0cea3
that describes how this could break either way (either for or against Apple and the AAC). I believe that it will work in favor of the AAC just because of Apple’s market share, in terms of the players and the store, but you never know. This does open up a window for the other manufacturers and distributors. Now it’s just a matter of them actually beating Apple, which obviously isn’t the easiest thing to do.