iPod and MSN Music
One of the more surprising things I found when checking out MSN Music is this statement.
How can I get MSN Music downloads to play on my iPod?
Unfortunately Apple refuses to support the popular Windows Media format on the iPod, choosing to only support their own proprietary DRM format. If you are an iPod owner and are unhappy about this, please send feedback to Apple and ask them to change their policy and interoperate with other music services.
There are more than 70 portable audio devices that support MSN Music today, and we hope that someday Apple decides to join with the industry and support consumer choice.
Who ever decided that this was a good idea has a lot of balls. I can't even begin to imagine how many LCAs were involved and how high up the food chain this had to go. Why? Well in MacBU we never ever said anything bad about Apple. Why? Cause once we did and we lost. Apple has a phenomenal PR relationship with the media and turned the story pretty much back in our face and it was ugly. Everyone felt like crap.
I'm interested in seeing how this one turns out. Personally I don't care. I don't purchase music on line cause I'm a snob about audio quality. If I am going to pay almost the same price as a CD I may as well buy a CD and rip it how I want without DRM. Lets face it, DRM is a pain in the ass. I don't mind it for subscription services and streaming like with Napster because I really don't own the content. I am subscribing to it. So, I rip to WMA and AAC and have plenty of hard drive space to spare. My iPod and my Portable Media Center are both very happy campers ;-).
