DRM is Dead!!

today is the day! drm is dead! it was very exciting to turn on today and read these kind of headlines:

* Napster Goes DRM-Free on Downloads, MP3s Ahead
* Sony BMG Confirms Initial DRM-Free Strike, Retail Play Emerges

Amazing stuff. i think that iTunes is going to be the only place to get DRM'ed tracks (except for some SOL little independent sites) within 6 months. and that (DRM on iTunes) only because the majors are pissed at apple/jobs and won't give them their catalogs fully DRM free.
Imagine how much further along we'd be if this had happened 5 years ago?!?
Instead of this rapid downturn of sales, maybe we'd be that much closer to actually developing a working market for artists.
I know people who still haven't downloaded music, think that it is too complicated, haven't opened up to paypal or putting their credit card info in online, don't use itunes, have been scared off by "DRM" talk (either it is too hard to use, or that someone will be tracking them), or any number of other reasons/excuses. Now that they know that their music will play everywhere they want it to, maybe they'll try buying something somewhere. Imagine if the 844 million tracks bought in 2007 is just from the early adopters! wow. that is some power.

this IS future of music

This seems to me to be the future of music. DRM-free, easy plug into other sites, very viral distribution, sharing revenues with fans, creating long term relationships between fans/artists, simultaneous releases across all platforms and territories. The revenue sharing piece is especially important to make sure that DRM-Free is profitable for artists. This is also worth a quick caveat, that caveat being that sales of actual tracks will no longer be the most profitable piece of an artist's body of work.


"As part of Universal's growing DRM-free experiment, Musicane has created a will.i.am widget to coincide with the Interscope release of the Black Eyed Pea founder's solo single "I Got It from My Mama" on August 28th. The Musicane widget acts as a media player on websites, blogs and social networks selling both digital and physical product and can be added with a single line of code.

"Interscope In a somewhat revolutionary move from a major artist, will.i.am is sharing the monies earned from Musicane product sales with fans that embed the store onto their blogs and social network profiles. Fans who pre-order the album will get a free download of the new single, as well as exclusive remixes. All of the downloads will be DRM-free mp3's.

"Universal will.i.am will also be one of the first releases on The Universal Music Group roster to be simultaneously released digitally without DRM to all digital business partners worldwide within the same album cycle as its physical release."

bye bye drm. . .

what did i say? way back . . . and not just me, but everyone else. DRM is doomed. Universal is actually doing some real work on sorting out what the future will be, and doing so outside of iTunes, since real experimentation is impossible there. . .

Universal to Test Sale of DRM-Free Tracks Everywhere but iTunes
Submitted by Mark Hefflinger on August 10, 2007 - 10:59am.

New York - Universal Music Group announced on Friday that it plans to experiment with selling a portion of its catalog free of digital rights management (DRM) restrictions from a number of online retailers, including Amazon.com, RealNetworks' Rhapsody, Best Buy and Walmart -- with the notable exception of Apple's iTunes Store.

The songs will be available in 256K MP3 format for the same price as DRM-wrapped tunes -- 99 cents per song -- and be available from later this month through at least January.

Universal Music told the Los Angeles Times the test is being conducted partly to see how sales and piracy rates will be affected if songs are offered without DRM, adding that Apple was excluded so "iTunes could serve as a 'control group' to make sales comparisons easier."

Analysts said the exclusion of Apple by Universal was also aimed at curtailing Steve Jobs' growing influence on its business.

Universal will help drive traffic to the DRM-free downloads using Google ads that link directly to digital retailer gBox; the songs will also be offered from some artist and label websites.

The only other major label to experiment with DRM-free songs thus far has been EMI, which sells high-quality MP3s at a premium price of $1.29 each at iTunes and other retailers.