The key quote in this article is 'The Recording Industry Association of America, which represents the major record labels, declined to comment on the iPod.'
Until the iPod 'recordable' audio devices were Asian products and the content played on them worldwide was by UK and US record companies. Ever heard of DAT? It was a digital audio recorder concept slapped on a stringent copy control system through the AHRA, the Audio Home Recording Act (AHRA), basically a law acting as a deterrent for any product to harm the enormous US driven CD market.
Suddenly the manufacturers this time around were also US IT companies. Dell, Microsoft, Intel and others joined the RIAA umbrella with Asian manufacturers at an industry forum called SDMI, a traveling circus that I joined, while working with Universal Music for Panasonic.
But one company at SDMI was missing - Apple. The labels were watching them, later even supporting them with a price of $1 per track rather than $3 offered to the MS-PC systems, but they thought Apple was just an R&D project, irrelevant for the market at large.
Until the iPod 'recordable' audio devices were Asian products and the content played on them worldwide was by UK and US record companies. Ever heard of DAT? It was a digital audio recorder concept slapped on a stringent copy control system through the AHRA, the Audio Home Recording Act (AHRA), basically a law acting as a deterrent for any product to harm the enormous US driven CD market.
Suddenly the manufacturers this time around were also US IT companies. Dell, Microsoft, Intel and others joined the RIAA umbrella with Asian manufacturers at an industry forum called SDMI, a traveling circus that I joined, while working with Universal Music for Panasonic.
But one company at SDMI was missing - Apple. The labels were watching them, later even supporting them with a price of $1 per track rather than $3 offered to the MS-PC systems, but they thought Apple was just an R&D project, irrelevant for the market at large.