Welcome to the home of Noah Brier. I'm the co-founder of Variance and general internet tinkerer. Most of my writing these days is happening over at Why is this interesting?, a daily email full of interesting stuff. This site has been around since 2004. Feel free to get in touch. Good places to get started are my Framework of the Day posts or my favorite books and podcasts. Get in touch.

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Apple to go unlimited?

After a Financial Times article saying as much, rumors of Apple negotiating a deal for all-you-can-eat music are flying. What’s most amazing to me is the price point the article mentions: While competitors like Nokia are offering $80-per-device to the music industry, Apple is offering $20 (unlimited DRM downloads over the life of the device).

Immediately made me think of Wired’s profile of Doug Morris which explained Apple’s dominance quite well (and the resentment the music industry has towards them): “This lack of interoperability, combined with the iPod’s overwhelming dominance, gave Apple a stranglehold on the digital music marketplace. And Jobs got to be the good guy with consumers, blaming the mess on the music industry’s pigheaded insistence on DRM.”

March 19, 2008