Hilary Rosen, The Most Out Of Touch Woman On Earth, Criticizes iPod




Today in a piece on The Huffington Post, Hilary Rosen criticized the iPod Music Store for its implementation of a proprietary DRM. How rich is it that the former RIAA chief complains about the lack of flexibility in her digital music? Would someone please remind her that she is partially, if not wholly, responsible for the onslaught of DRM enabled downloads and physical CDs?

This is my favorite quote from the entire story:

"The new iPod my girlfriend gave me is a trap. Yeah, it is great looking and I really love the baby blue leather case but when, oh when, will Steve Jobs let me buy music from somewhere other than the Apple iTunes store and put it on my iPod?"

Let's examine this a little closer, shall we?

Are eMusic downloads compatible with iPods? Yes.
Are Audio Lunchbox downloads compatible iPods? Yes.
Are Amazon.com's free music downloads compatible with iPods? Yes.

Rosen continues by talking out of both sides of her mouth.

"But keeping the iTunes system a proprietary technology to prevent anyone from using multiple (read Microsoft) music systems is the most anti-consumer and user unfriendly thing any god can do. Is this the same Jobs that railed for years about the Microsoft monopoly? Is taking a page out of their playbook the only way to have a successful business?"

What?!?! How is the iTunes Music Store a monopoly? iPod users aren't forced to own iPods or buy music from the iTunes Music Store. As she points out, several brands of MP3 players are available. Several music stores exist (although none do the business iTunes does and for good reason).

Again, I'd like to point out, Rosen's former organization "railed" against open format digital downloads. Now she's complaining that someone has created a successful legal model?

You can read the entire article here.

Posted: Mon - May 9, 2005 at 10:17 PM      

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