Yesterday, Apple announced that they would being offering songs on iTunes that will not have DRM (Digital Rights Management). Without DRM, songs can play on music players other than Apple's and can be shared an unlimited number of times. EMI records, publishers of Kanye West and Good Charlotte, is the first company to offer the DRM-free music.
These songs will cost $1.29, rather than the traditional $.99, but they have doubled the quality of the song from 128 to 256 kbps. The album cost of $9.99 remains unchanged. Users are able to upgrade songs they already own for the $.30 difference.
Steve Jobs had said previously that he wanted to do away with DRM. It seems Jobs got his way. He expects other record companies to join EMI in this move, projecting that half of all iTunes offerings will be DRM-free by the end of the year.
It seems to be a win-win situation for everyone--Apple and record companies make more money on each song, Apple sells more songs to people who don't own iPods, and users feel like they have gained freedom, not to mention high-quality tunes. I can't see a downside, for Apple or for music lovers, with this maneuver. Can you?
Related Stories: | Topics:Work/Life, entertainment, Apple Inc., Science and Technology, Technology, Internet, Internet Music Services |
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Recent Comments | 2 Total
April 4, 2007 at 5:44am by Eremasi Tamanisau
I am interested to know as to how the Composers, whose work produced the song in the first place and own the Intellectual Property in the song, will benefit when DRM is removed.
August 21, 2007 at 8:02am by Alex
1) Their work will be availible to a much larger audience through iTunes since it won't be tied to the iPod anymore. More exposure. More profit.
2) Consumers HATE DRM, they want to be able to backup, copy their files around, load them onto music players of their choice etc. Making your customers miserable hurts sales. Consumers have demonstrated they are willing to move en-masse away from DRM given an option (see also eMusic). Hence composers can only lose in the long term by having their work under DRM.
3) The technical restrictions will lead to people listening to their work less because they can't transfer it to their other mp3 player or whatever. This hurts artists obviously.