7th
The “Music Tax”
There is a good deal of hubbub on the web from yesterday’s announcement of the so-called “music tax”. The TechCrunch article entitled The Price Of Going DRM-Free: Apple’s Hidden $1.8 Billion Music Tax seems to have stoked that fire. This is all well and good, and I for one am certainly upset that I have to pay 30 cents (!) a song for better quality and freedom from DRM (a feature which most consumers argue should be standard).
Still, the use of the term “music tax” is highly misleading, and it is surprising that a blog that has long sought to educate the public on the dangers of actual music taxes would fall into that mistake (see Replacing DRM With A Music Tax Is Incredibly Stupid, Music Tax Details From Source: “Pay Us Not To Sue You”, etc.).
While Apple’s hidden upgrade cost is at least cruel and unusual punishment for us tech geeks, the fact remains that it is a voluntary cost, which implies that it is not, in actuality, a tax at all.
The exception of course, is for those of us who view the existence of DRM songs in our libraries as utterly unacceptable, and therefore feel that we have no choice in the matter of the upgrade. For those that fall into that category, who cannot stand to listen to 128kb files, or who refuse to unlock one by one a maximum of five computers for listening rights, then Apple’s hidden upgrade cost can indeed be considered a “music tax,” and a nasty one at that.
However, we must agree that this is a step in the right direction. I don’t think anyone expected the music industry to let this one go without a fight, and if the tradeoff were one more year of DRM music on iTunes, I don’t know if I would have advised Steve to wait it out.
Jake and I agree. The general direction is the right one, and that should be the point. Upgrading is voluntary, like going from cassettes to CDs.
