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Real CEO says iPod users steal music

updated 09:10 am EDT, Thu May 11, 2006

iPod users steal music?


Real Networks' CEO Rob Glaser says iPod users are stealing music. In an interview with The Guardian, Glaser said that while users purchase some music from iTunes, most of their collections are illegally obtained. "If you want interoperable music today, there is a very easy solution: it's called stealing. The average number of songs sold for the iPod is 25, and there are many more songs on iPods than 25. About half the music on iPods is music obtained illegitimately either from an illegal peer-to-peer networks or from ripping friends' CDs, which is illegal." Glaser noted that Apple's closed iTunes/iPod ecosystem pushes users to piracy to obtian non-copy protected, portable, interoperable music, but admits that Apple has been able to use iTunes to help drive sales of its iPod, where it makes most of its money, while other services struggle to make on money on music.

"Apple has gotten away with this approach to a greater degree than we thought they would," Glaser told The Guardian. The music industry has made a mistake, not by agreeing to Apple's fixed-price level (79p per track), which is what gets all the attention, but by allowing Apple to create devices that are not interoperable."

The CEO said that Apple's dominance was due to lack of compelling portable players--though he said Real was not interested in developing or marketing a branded device.

"We can compete but isn't it better to wait until you have a slam dunk solution in the portable context?," Glaser said in response to a question on whether or not he believed Real could compete with the industry-leading iTunes, which has more than 65 percent marketshare in Europe. "In the US a lot of iPod users also use our Rhapsody product, but we think being head-to-head is inevitable because Apple is pretty ambitious about how it wants to use its closed eco-system. At the same time, until there is a critical mass of devices out there that really are worthy competitors to the iPod."

Glaser aims to to make Real Music a "great product with differential features such as user-generated content and add on the subscription piece when the devices warrant it."


by MacNN Staff

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Comments

  1. siMac

    Mac Elite

    Joined: Aug 2004

    0

    sour grapes

    Because of course, if Apple allowed iPods to use RealMedia files, all these users would finally have the alternative they need to piracy. No more P2P or CD swapping, just millions of iPods filled to capacity with RealMedia.

    Yeah right, what a tool...

  1. JacquesDav

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Jun 2002

    0

    wah wah wah wah...

    Nobody woves me...

    (Heard as Glaser laments quietly to himself for not having thought of the iPod first, DRM or no DRM)

  1. technocoy

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Oct 2002

    0

    hasn't this guy...

    gone into a coma yet from all the s*** permeating his body?

    It's like c*** is constantly flowing in big gurgly chunks from his mouth.

    AAAHHH!!! Glaser is a fool.

    apples DRM pushes piracy.... everyone elses is happy and shiny and dancing with hippies and flowers i guess. I know i LOVE all the DRM on other players that allow me to do WHATEVER I WANT with the music I PAY FOR.

  1. jhorvatic

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Apr 2005

    0

    iTunes is what pushed leg

    iTunes is what started pushing legal music sales and the legal sales of music online has been steadily increasing ever since. Donut boy should just get over it and get out of the music renting business. Because now he's alienated any potential iPod users from ever wanting to use Real's crappy service.

  1. thinkman

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Jan 2005

    0

    Glaser

    Doesn't this fool get it. He's a pathetic, also-ran, loser! Every time he opens his mouth to bad-mouth Apple, he sticks another foot in the MP3 grave. How many feet does this guy have left????

  1. appleisgreat

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Feb 2006

    0

    Sounds like...

    Steve Ballmer. Didn't Ballmer say the same thing? I think Glaser is just whining because his crappy music service can't touch iTunes. Even though there are some disadvantages, Apple's 'closed' system is better than all of the rest. Since Apple's star is on the rise, wouldn't it be better for Glaser and Real to work WITH Apple instead of against Apple?

    What a dumbass!

  1. boomer0127

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Jan 2004

    0

    Haven't we....

    ...been through this already once before? Can we get to the apology and move on?

  1. rok

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Mar 1999

    0

    what an idiot

    just like gorog, he is doomed by his own ignorance of what his users actually DO and WANT. i own a 60 gb ipod, and it's half full, and not a SHRED of illegal material on it. all of my cd collection ripped to mp3s, then a few additional iTMS tracks/albums, and finally a bunch of video podcasts and purchased videos. oh, and all of my photos, too.

  1. Smurfman

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: May 2001

    0

    25 legal Songs?!?!?

    Where did he pull THAT from?!? Seems a mighty exaggerated conjecture there.

    I know I have hundreds of CDs I have either bought or been given as a gift as well as a number of songs and albums from iTunes Music Store that make up my music library. I'm sure people pirate a lot of music, but I would guess there are more people like me than what Glaser thinks.

    I personally do not know anyone who pirates the majority of their music library. I know they are out there, but a number of my friends and family do the same thing I'm doing (RIP from their own purchased CDs or purchase directly from iTunes).

  1. maccam

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Sep 2005

    0

    so the logic is...

    non-ipoders and the iTuneless never ever rip their own CDs or friends CDs to other mp3 players and jukeboxes?

    He can't really believe that, someone must have spiked the sprinkles on his doughnut.

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