I suggest taking a nap, then.

“Well, they’re right about one thing, DRM in its current form doesn’t work”

Despite being tired of them, you do not seem to disagree… You then go on to propose another solution:

“What we need is a single DRM standard that lets consumers do with the music as they see fit within the confines of the law.”

Guess what: The solution of abandoning DRM entirely will accomplish this just as well, and much cheaper, too.

“Stop whining for something that fundamentally won’t work and get behind a real solution that works for everyone.”

You haven’t proved that abandoning DRM won’t work, and it would seem that a number of people with clout are in disagreement with you. And as yo the whining, it seems that you are doing most of it. As to getting behind a “real” solution, I think you have it backwards there, too: It is you who is advocating a solution that doesnt even exist in favor of the -real- one that everybody else is backing. But it is not too late to stop your whining and get on the right train.

Fairplay is proprietary and thus Fairplay protected files only play on iPods, but AAC (Advanced Audio Coding) is part of the MPEG-4 standard, it’s not Apple’s format.

http://www.iis.fraunhofer.de/fhg/iis/EN/bf/amm/index.jsp

“Fraunhofer IIS is the leading international research institution in the field of high quality low bit rate audio coding. It has been the main developer of the most advanced audio coding schemes, like MPEG Layer-3 (MP3) and MPEG AAC (Advanced Audio Coding).”

“That method has worked quite well for Apple, with 48% of all Apple revenue being attributed to the iPod alone.”

The iPod alone accounts for 35-50 percent of Apple’s revenue, depending on the quarter. About half during the holiday shopping season, but only a third during the three other quarters. 39.7% for the fiscal year 2006.

“But the times are changing, and giving users the freedom to choose any media player they want may prove to put a dent in the sales of the fastest selling music player in history.”

The times are not changing, sorry. Most music played on iPods (and other players) is ripped from CDs or illegally downloaded from the Internet, and these MP3 files have always been interoperable, people are free to play these files on any player since forever. The iTunes store accounts for a little part, a handful of songs per customer.

“So what will Apple ultimately do?”

They will sell millions of iPods. :-)

“A subscription-based model sounds good for the consumer, and possibly good for iTunes to keep their customers. But given the move toward DRM-free music, it would never stand a chance; subscribers would sign up for service, copy the entire list of music, and simply cancel their subscription the following day.”

Are you joking or something? Of course a subscription-based service would require DRMs.