The same applies to the Zune player and Zune Marketplace. So customers with songs from the iTunes store have to stick with the iPod. Apple, for instance, does not license its rights-management technology, FairPlay, to other companies. The many conflicting approaches to rights management can also limit choices. And eMusic might do even better if it offered songs from the four major record labels - EMI, Sony BMG, Universal and Warner - that control about 75 percent of the music market.Īside from some small experiments, the majors do not use the MP3 format because it lacks the digital rights management, or D.R.M., technology that protects copyrighted works by preventing unlimited duplication. Though dwarfed by iTunes' 72 percent market share, eMusic's 10 percent share (as measured by the research firm NPD Group) beats all other stores, including Napster, Rhapsody and Wal-Mart. Rather than selling songs in a closed-file format like Zune or FairPlay from Apple, eMusic uses the MP3 format, which works on all devices. 'Zune calls attention to the conundrum that consumers don't like, which is being locked in to a retailer by virtue of what hardware you buy,' said David Packman, chief executive of the online store eMusic. The Zune Marketplace, Microsoft's media store, offers two million songs, but they play on just one hand-held device. With Zune, Microsoft follows the Apple strategy of linking a player and a download service. Though Zune offers a new choice for customers, it also highlights how restrictive such choices can be. THIS week Microsoft introduced Zune, its answer to Apple Computer's mighty pairing of the iPod portable media player and the iTunes music and video store.

Download qtfairuse