iTunes is the only music service that has been highly successful getting people to buy digital music when they could otherwise steal it. I teach teenagers and college students. They steal most of their music and see nothing wrong with doing so, but when they do buy, it’s from iTunes only.

Universal should give up and just offer their content DRM free at iTunes to capture the business of those of us who want higher quality DRM-Free music but want to stick to the best online music store there is.

I plan to avoid buying any music from Universal for a year. Neither will I steal.

This is a bad deal for both parties in the short term, but rest assured that Universal knows something we don’t. Keep in mind that, soon, Amazon will be selling DRM-free on a scale that blows iTunes out of the water.

The record giants and iTunes are completely under-serving the long tail. They think they’re at war with the Internet, but they’re really at war with bad marketing.

I said “MAY be unfairly dominating the market” as a concession to Steve’s use of the phrase “the iTunes/iPod hegemony” in the post. I did not assert that it was unfair, only conceding that some view it as such. I agree with you, that the words hegemony and domination may be too strong, as the Apple share of the market is only online. And, as I said in my original comment, I agree that Apple’s great move was creating a service so easy to use that it competes with free p2p sites.

Jeff, it is apparent to everyone, (except perhaps you) that next gen audio formats will not take off, SACD and DVD-Audio have been around for years now and nobody is buying.

For most people, CD quality is the high end, I’ve given up on trying to persuuade people that lossles formats are the way ahead, they just don’t care and can’t hear the difference through their iPod earbuds.

Convenience is king, personally I love vinyl and valves, but even I have packed away my hi fi and records. I have around 15,000 tracks in my iTunes library which I listen to via a firewire audio interface (with nice sounding DACs) and and a pair of audiphile quality powered speakers.

My .002 Euros

The crux of the matter is, Universal is fighting to protect a music catalog crippled with DRM. They’re trying to force Apple to license its DRM, while Apple would prefer to get out of the copy-protection business altogether. Most consumers side with Apple on this issue.

Personally, I only recently started buying music from the iTunes Store, when they announced their deal with EMI Music. I’ve only purchased DRM-free iTunes Plus tracks and albums, which at the moment excludes Universal. The only copy-protected music I own I got as free Singles of the Week.

iTunes Plus is the future, while DRM-crippled music like Universal’s catalog is the past, and Apple knows it. As an anecdotal example of WHY they know it, sales of Pink Floyd’s “The Dark Side of the Moon” have increased 350% since they started offering it DRM-free.

Universal obviously hasn’t gotten the message yet, but they will soon enough. Once they see EMI’s profits increasing while theirs are decreasing, they’ll end up dropping the DRM and coming back to the iTunes Store with their tails between their legs. Then Apple will be in an even stronger position than they are right now.

And right now, they’re the No. 3 biggest seller of music in the country. Apple is holding four kings, while Universal is looking to go all-in with a pair of Jacks and a flush draw. My advice to Universal is to suck it up and fold the hand. And if they’re going to be long-term winners, they’re going to need to open up their catalog to iTunes Plus.

Universal will continue to sell its music on iTunes, but will not agree to the license which basically restricted them, for example any music they offered elsewhere had to be offered on iTunes.

The media has been very misleading on this situation and Universal and Apple are in talks anyway, nothing is final.