Apple’s DRM-Call: Pin the Blame on the Donkeys

The obvious answer is of course, to make the critisism go away. The fact that it will make for a better experience for the costumers is simply a lucky side-effect.

But in fact, Apple’s move does indeed not make the critisism go away per se. It simply diverts it over to the record companies. In fact, I suppose Apple doesn’t even really want the music industry to remove the DRM from iTunes.

iTunes + iPod (= DRM)

The slogan “iTunes + iPod” says it all. The fact that the iTunes Store is the largest online music store, is interdependent with the fact that the iPod is the most sold music player.

In a world without DRM, Windows-users could just as easily get all their music to their iPod from the Zune Marketplace. Apple doesn’t want that..!

In a world without DRM, users that like the way the iTunes Store works, could just as easily go out and buy a Creative Zen-player instead of an iPod. Apple doesn’t want that..!

Sure, the consumers would love to get to choose whatever music store and player they want — but that isn’t what Apple wants. Apple wants to make money. (Who doesn’t, by the way...)

The perfect scenario for Apple, Inc. would therefore be if the music industry said no, and refused to comply with today’s call for dropping DRM. This would let Apple continue to keep the closed iTunes-iPod-link, but having the nerds be angry at the record companies instead of Apple.

Let’s just hope Apple doesn’t get their will...