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STORES HOPE TO UNLOCK IPOD SYSTEM
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Short Description: tives say the iPod is the most popular single device used. with Rhapsody to load purchased tracks. STORES HOPE TO UNLOCK IPOD SYSTEM. By Antony Bruno ...
Content Inside: STORES HOPE TO UNLOCK IPOD SYSTEM By Antony Bruno December 17, 2005 With iPod sales predicted to total 37 million by the end of Taking a slightly different approach is TiVo, which is the year, expect more digital music stores and back-end updating the TiVoToGo service so users can transfer services to bypass-or at least attempt to bypass-Apple recorded TV shows to the new video iPod. TiVo is not Computer's control over its user base. working to break the FairPlay technology. The recorded shows instead will be unprotected, but watermarked so Currently, the only digital music that Apple permits on the they can be tracked to their original owner to prevent iPod are unprotected MP3 files and tracks bought from unauthorized sharing. the iTunes Music Store encoded with its FairPlay digital rights management technology. Just as online services want to sell files that work with the iPod, device manufacturers want to market products Since Apple steadfastly refuses to license the FairPlay that will play tracks from the best-selling iTunes Music technology to other digital music services, the only way to Store. Only Apple-made devices can play such files. The sell copyright-protected music that also works on the only exception is the ROKR phone made by Motorola. world's most popular digital music player is to hack the system. As such, device manufacturers are developing The latest effort to do so is headed by Cupertino, Calif.- workarounds of their own, particularly in the home enter- based Navio Systems. Navio enables online music retail- tainment market. Digital Droplet is testing a product ers to sell digital rights as a package, instead of selling called AudioFaucet, for instance, that allows TiVo users to actual digital files, allowing consumers to take their music to stream FairPlay-protected music through the TiVo device various platforms-mobile or portable players, etc. connected to a home network. According to COO Ray Schaaf, his customers have Currently, only unprotected MP3 files are accessible requested the ability to sell copy-protected music that can through the TiVo digital streaming service. AudioFaucet won also work on the iPod, so Navio is reverse-engineering the grand prize of TiVo's Developers Challenge earlier this year. FairPlay to do so. Clients include Fox Music, TVT Records and Sony BMG. MP3Tunes founder Michael Robertson hired infamous hacker Jon Lech Johansen to reverse-engineer the iTunes "We're DRM agnostic, so we'll provide the files in the service as part of the company's new Oboe digital music way our content-owner customers want," Schaaf says. storage and streaming system. "Apple doesn't license [FairPlay] today, which is unfortu- nate. [But] we're going to let our customers decide." The iTunes plug-in for the service adds an Oboe folder to the iTunes menu, allowing users to drag and drop songs He pointed to the example set by RealNetworks, which in into the folder to back up their iTunes library to an online July 2004 introduced a technology called Harmony that storage "locker." allows any track purchased from the company's music service, Rhapsody, to play on the iPod. These individual efforts further highlight the interoper- ability problem many point to as a barrier limiting the Apple reacted severely, accusing RealNetworks of using growth of digital music. "the tactics of a hacker" and alluding to potential legal action, which never came. When Apple introduced the "They screwed up DRM so bad that you're treated better iPod Photo last December, it updated the software to if you get music from a [peer-to-peer] service or burn it block the Harmony functionality. But in April, from your CD," Robertson says. "Why not give the con- RealNetworks reconfigured the system, and a company sumer greater options?" representative says there has not been a problem since. According to a November Forrester Research report, con- Representatives from Apple did not return requests for sumers remain wary of digital entertainment purchases comment. because of interoperability concerns. Of those who have Apple "was self-righteously angry that you would let bought content online, 38% say they expect to have the someone buy music somewhere else," a Rhapsody repre- ability to transfer that content to any device they own. sentative says. "If it's going to let them sell more iPods, As more devices become available with digital content what's the big deal?" capabilities-such as digital video recorders, home stereo The Harmony feature is not something Rhapsody markets systems and mobile devices-consumers may balk at paying for very heavily, and RealNetworks will not disclose how content that is limited to a specific device, like the iPod. many purchased tracks are transferred to iPod devices, "Consumers will only become more aware of it as a prob- even though it is able to monitor such usage. But execu- lem when they become aware of the alternative devices tives say the iPod is the most popular single device used available to them," RealNetworks senior VP of premium with Rhapsody to load purchased tracks. consumer service Dan Sheeran says. ©2005 VNU eMedia Inc. All rights reserved. Billboard is a registered trademark of VNU eMedia Inc. All other trademarks are the properties of their respective owners.
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