Reeling from the Ozzfest 2007 ticket prices being free shocker, a reminder that Apple isn’t feuding with the other Apple any more over that red, delicious name. You know, the Beatles Apple. The courts ruled that Apple computer isn’t infringing on the Beatle’s Apple. Now maybe, hopefully, soon we’ll see the Beatles catalog. I thought this was over last year?

Today, the big news is Apple CEO Steve Jobs post describing and somewhat decrying the current DRM situation:

In 2006, under 2 billion DRM-protected songs were sold worldwide by online stores, while over 20 billion songs were sold completely DRM-free and unprotected on CDs by the music companies themselves. The music companies sell the vast majority of their music DRM-free, and show no signs of changing this behavior, since the overwhelming majority of their revenues depend on selling CDs which must play in CD players that support no DRM system.

In Jobs very blog-like post on a non-blog area of Apple (there isn’t an official Apple blog), he’s going straight to the people with a message and the three options he sees, including the one that the people seem to favor the most: no DRM at all. Will the record companies cave and do the right thing?

This move from a guy who historically has kept most his cards to himself is interesting and noteworthy. It does seem a bit phony that Jobs is kind of throwing his hands up over the situation when Apple has the power position with iTunes being the dominant legal online music provider, but I think Jobs is dead on. Something desperately needs to happen and happen soon. Many people, myself included, with dramatically less influence than Steve Jobs have been saying DRM sucks. It’s nice to have Mr. Jobs support on that front.

I think eventually the “big four” as Jobs describes them will, but I don’t see them doing the right thing tomorrow or even in 2007. They want to hold onto the power structure as long as they can and if they still managed to move 10 times the amount of CDs as music sold online in 2006, we shouldn’t expect them to start waving white flags.

I wouldn’t be shocked, however, if by 2010 that DRM as we now know it for music will be changed. At some point you have to trust people to do the right thing and DRM, despite good and bad intentions, foolishly handcuffs legitimate customers. A bad business model no matter how you look at it.

I heard John Lennon singing Imagine as I read this:

Imagine a world where every online store sells DRM-free music encoded in open licensable formats. In such a world, any player can play music purchased from any store, and any store can sell music which is playable on all players. This is clearly the best alternative for consumers, and Apple would embrace it in a heartbeat.

Sing it Jobs, er, John:

You may say that I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will be as one

Today has been a good day for music fans indeed: Ozzfest 2007 for free and Steve Jobs being in favor of DRM free future. Can we get a trifecta?

Did this post make you go hmm?

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