At last, the Music industry seems to start accepting that Internet and mp3 have changed the way people consume songs.
The announcement that Sony BMG will launch a DRM-free music download service, confirms the death of Music DRM. Last month Warner Music announced that they would sell DRM-free music through Amazon. Some months earlier, EMI and Vivendi Universal did similar announcements. The four biggest labels finally abandon DRM, the technology that users renamed as Digital Restrictions Management, instead of the original Digital Rights Management.
The push to kill DRM came from Apple itself in early 2007. When pressed to license iTunes DRM to other mp3 players, Steve Jobs refused, as licensing would mean leaking vital info that keeps DRM unbroken. Furthermore, he advised labels to remove protection instead. Steve Jobs reminded labels that they were already providing unprotected music whenever they sold a CD.
A few months later, DRM’s death it is a reality. Music labels are in a better position now than previously with Apple’s near-monopoly on music download. Amazon and the labels going direct will be a strong competition to Apple.
Both the consumers and the Music industry will win.
Related posts:
Insights from Seth Godin’s blog:
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/01/music-lessons.html
An analogy of music with other previous industry transformations: video arcade
http://gigaom.com/2008/01/07/what-the-video-arcade-tells-us-about-the-recording-industry/