universal - splitsville with itunes?

the largest record label (universal) declined to renew its contract with itunes and is setting up its own free music download system, which will allow users to download COMPLETELY USELESS FILES.

not only do the files have DRM (digital rights management), the files cannot be burned onto a CD. and of course, they can't be played on an ipod. since apple has at least a 75% market share in the portable media player market, the files will be completely useless to 75% of the digital download market, since these users won't even be able to burn the files to a CD and then convert them to an apple-compatible file type.

do you think the 75% of users who have ipods will lug around their laptop everywhere to listen to these tracks? hell no! do you think the even larger percentage of users who burn their digital files to CD to listen to in their cars will put up with this crap? HELL NO! this downloading system is useless to the vast majority of digital download consumers, and since universal is splitting with itunes, where will the vast majority of digital downloaders get their universal-label music?

thank you, universal, for inadvertently jumpstarting a new wave of illegal file sharing. yep, your business plan was created by monkeys. kudos!