iTunes vs Palm Pre

In what is shapping up to be another example of the back and forth one-upsmanship between companies, Apple and Palm are fighting over access to the iTunes music store.

Palm started the action when the new Palm Pre could access directly into iTunes, as though it were a iPod or iPhone device. Apple promptly updated iTunes to disallow this action. Palm responded with a software update of their own, in which the Palm Pre spoofs itself to appear as a iPod in iTunes. This will certainly go back and forth a few more times, as Apple is agreesively insistant in keeping the iTunes/iPod vertical a locked experience.

On one hand this is typical Apple behavior, but in this case there is a more important factor to consider. Apple generates very little income, if any, from the iTunes store (most of that goes to the record companies). Apple cashes in from the sale of devices that interface with the store, so it's even more important for them to keep the store "locked".

I have no idea what the actual end game will be, but I think Apple could be in a nice position if they would licence out limited connectivity to certain companies, before Amazon gets the obvious idea of specialized store front for their music offerings.

Let the Music Play

When the music industry recently did an apparent about face and started embracing DRM free music on sites like Amazon and other locations, but NOT Apple's iTunes Store (in most cases), I think I saw a very different picture starting to forming from the one the industry may have wanted to paint.

From an industry that regularly sues children and grandparents thousands of dollars for each illegally downloaded song, to installing rootkit technology without user's knowledge or consent (and then lying about what that technology was doing), I no longer tend to trust anything they say. If they tell me the sky's blue, I'm still going outside to check for myself.

So from my viewpoint this whole move to DRM free music on other sites like Amazon seems less like they are trying to give music fans what they really want (truly portable and device agnostic music) and more like they are just trying to break the monopoly that iTunes has on the market. Once the monopoly is broken, expect those song prices to go up, and maybe even a lag between when full albums are available in digital format as opposed to CD format.

A few years ago when the music publishers wanted to raise the cost of songs on iTunes; the newest hit songs would be around $1.49, while "golden oldies" would be less than 99 cents. Apple fought back and as we can see today, the pricing hasn't changed... but the relationship between Apple and the record companies did.

While this recent article on the roadblocks record labels are erecting against new digital music initiatives doesn't confirm my doom and gloom scenario, it does seem like another brick in the wall, as Pink Floyd might say.