Tone deaf Microsoft defends DRM

Robbie Bach tells Forbes why Microsoft loves DRM. And he gives me a little bit of grief for my open letter, “Thoughts on Music.” Now, I’ve explained recently why I don’t think DRM is a big deal. That’s me personally. But what Microsoft doesn’t get, and what the record companies don’t get, is it doesn’t matter what we think, personally. What matters is that customers, for reasons that are often irrational, or, shall we say, founded on emotions, don’t want DRM. They just don’t. And it’s holding back all of our businesses because customers don’t want to buy music that’s wrapped in DRM. And at the end of the day we’ve got to remember we’re in the business of trying to make things that people want to buy. It’s as simple as that, really. We need to listen to customers. I know. A foreign concept for Microsoft.