… that the music labels would screw this up, too. Apple dictated that iTunes had a strict pricing policy that was uniform across the board. This worked well. Apple did well. The music industry did well. iTunes was a hit.
But Apple didn’t want DRM on the music and the music labels decided to make variable pricing a condition of removing it. Apple stuck to its guns and the industry gave the non-DRM stuff to Amazon as a way of reducing Apple’s marketshare, since Apple’s dominance was becoming a threat to their stupidly-run industry. Apple gritted its teeth and agreed to the variable pricing and got the non-DRM music.
In short, the stupid music industry, in an effort to make more money and to hurt Apple’s iTunes marketshare, raised prices on music during a recession. The result is predictable: industry-wide, growth of digital sales was 5%—down from 11% in June.
Hey, book publishers! You see this right here? You notice how the same issue is facing you? Maybe you should do something different than it looks like you’re doing?
I’d say that _of course_ Apple wanted DRM on the music they sell. Otherwise they wouldn’t have struck a DRM deal with the music labels.
They’re also rather keen on DRM in their AppStore in which they are free to do whatever they like.
While I can see that perhaps early on Apple wanted DRM on the music, I don’t see why they would have wanted to keep it after the netroots began to whine about it. For movies and apps, sure.