ArsTechnica on iTunes

[mmcirvin]

Continuing my endless series on Apple's music stuff, here's a pointer to the best commentary I've seen on where Apple ought to go with Windows iTunes, from Ken "Caesar" Fisher of the usually-interesting ArsTechnica. Aside from a couple of well-taken technical criticisms, he thinks that Apple can make its Music Store more open to third-party players without cutting badly into the iPod market (the iPod would still have the advantages of tight integration between iTunes and its firmware), and that they should do so in order to counter complaints about iTunes as a hardware-based closed system (and, I would add, to get more youth mindshare by better supporting downmarket players). This would presumably be done by opening up their DRM scheme to other manufacturers; alternatively they could adopt Windows Media as their distribution format, but that ain't happening.