There are better options out there...

While I think that the iPod is nifty, I've never bought into the whole iTunes stuff... Thomas Hawk lays it out in his entry iTunes, One Billion Suckers Served.

Personally I've never bought an iTune and I don't own an iPod. I think Apple's DRM is awful and represents a major step back for us all. I think those that are investing in iTune digital libraries are suckers. You are basically betting that Apple's proprietary DRM laced format will be the standard for the rest of your life. You are paying too much for your music and tying yourself to only Apple products going forward. More innovative ways to play your music may indeed come in the future but unless they are marketed by Apple you will not likely be able to use these devices with your iTunes files due to Apple's tight proprietary control.

Personally I want nothing to do with it. I still collect my digital music the old fashioned way, I rip it straight from CDs to crystal clear high bit rate DRM free mp3s. These files of course can be played on any device and represent better value in my opinion for today's consumer. What happens when the killer phone is finally here? You know the one, built in terabyte of storage, lightening fast file transfer speeds, full satellite radio, a breathalyzer, your car and house key, a tiny little thing the size of credit card with a 12 mega pixel camera on it (hey it's the future right, we can dream). What happens when this phone is out and you really want it and unfortunately Apple didn't make it? That's right, you're a sucker then aren't you. I thought so. You paid all that good money for your iTunes and now you can't put them on your new phone because your new phone threatens Apple's dominance. So who owns the music anyway? You or them? They do. You bought nothing. You bought the right to play their song on their product. It might work today. But I'm not about to bet that this will be the format du jour 10 years from now.

Of course the record labels won't care about you being screwed because they'll be happy to just have you buy your same music all over again. Just like you did when you bought it on LP, then cassette, then CD then from iTunes. Why charge you once when they can keep charging you over and over and over again?

And if you think Apple will be opening up their proprietary format anytime soon, think again. Apple makes virtually nothing on their iTunes downloads, after paying the labels, marketing costs, bandwidth costs, etc. they make peanuts. They make a *ton* of money on the other hand on selling iPods. This was the genius deal between Steve Jobs and the hacks over at the record labels who are just as big of suckers as you are and basically have done nothing but cannibalize existing more lucrative CD sales. They were short sighted and never thought to try to get a piece of the hardware sale and now they are yammering on about raising iTunes prices on you because they are bitter dogs over the screwing that Jobs gave them. Jobs of course is quick to turn around and call them greedy hacks, but can anyone here say "pot" "black".

They will do everything they can to protect this market including screwing over you the customer who mistakenly thought you bought a song from them.

There are work arounds for Apple iTunes DRM, but they're nowhere near as effecient as not getting wrapped up in the whole snarky mess in the first place. Just please try to keep in mind that Apple looks after Apple. The music industry looks after its own short sighted goals. Shouldn't you at least look after yourself?