Reading Between the Lines
Wednesday, February 7th, 2007
John Gruber has posted a very insightful article analyzing Steve Jobs’s “Thoughts on Music” essay. I think Gruber is spot-on in suggesting that the point of the article is to get on record as having their hands tied by the music industry’s insistence on selling DRM protected music. It might not help them with European governments, but it certainly won’t hurt them either.
I’m still wildly impressed by this public stance Apple has taken. Whether or not it’s a bluff is beside the point. Apple’s on record now as taking this stance, and the consequences of going back on it are worse than going through with it. For an industry leader to take such an aggressive stance and basically say, “We don’t need to lock our customers into our product. We know that they will choose us anyway.” is very impressive. I think think they’re right too.