Everyone has an iPod these days. In fact so many people have iPods that pointing it out has become cliche. Of course as a Computer Science major who doesn't take many writing classes I get to be cliche. iPods are pretty simple to use, you just plug them in and they seamlessly talk to Apple's media software. A very significant goal of this entire system is to sell you music via the iTunes online store. Music bought from this store comes with DRM technology that locks that music into iTunes. This simple fact has some serious implications that most people that use this technology don't realize.
Recently Slashdot linked to an article that reported that a major label is threatening to pull out from the iTunes store unless iTunes reworks its 99 cents per song pricing scheme. Even if such an action does not occur at this time, the potential nightmare for music purchasers is clear. If a major label jumps ship, the iTunes store no longer has the music you want. The music might be available somewhere else, but it is likely to come with its own DRM that locks it in to some different program (Windows Media Player 10 for example). This can effectively split a users collection between various incompatible programs and formats. In such a situation only certain parts of your collection would be transferable to your iPod; other parts would transfer to different players. The simple act of just listening to your music on your own computer would become a convoluted task involving multiple players being open. Unfortunately the scenario I just described is the good news. The worst case would in fact be iTunes/iPod maintaining its dominance.
In a situation where iTunes maintains its dominance of the downloadable music scheme for another few years, users would be effectively locked into iTunes permanently. The reasoning behind this claim is simple, and the dangers posed very clear. Assume that a user purchases just 15 songs a month (about one albums worth) at about $1 a month. This represents an investment $15 each month and $180 year. Over four years this represents a total of $720 invested into a music collection. If that user decides they no longer want an iPod (or another apple approved device), or no longer want iTunes they face loosing their entire music collection. Switching to another provider would require $720 just to replace the lost music.
When I say iTunes is evil I really mean it. iTunes and other DRM laden software threaten to chain users to incompatible proprietary standards and leave users at the mercy of the provider. Remember, every dollar you spend on your "cool new music" is another dollar that supports Evil Inc.
