Another turnaround: Microsoft wants DRM-free music
It looks that EMI started a small revolution in selling music on the internet. After EMI and Apple announced the introduction of DRM free songs on iTunes store is Microsoft’s turn to sign a similar deal. Speaking with Times, Jason Reindorp, head of marketing for Zune, hinted that Microsoft will sell DRM free songs via its Zune platform. “We’ve been saying for a while that we are aware that consumers want to have unprotected content.”, Reindrop said. British music giant EMI Group PLC said Monday it would start selling much of its music without anti-copying software. The third-largest recording company, which made its announcement with Apple Inc. Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs, said it would sell songs through Apple’s iTunes store beginning next month and possibly later through other online outlets.
By providing downloads without the anti-copying “digital-rights management” software, “we aim to address the lack of interoperability, which is frustrating for many music fans,” EMI CEO Eric Nicoli said. iTunes would sell individual EMI tracks, with their DRM removed, at twice the sound quality of existing downloads for $1.29. Last year, an interview with Techcrunch, Bill Gates expressed his opinions about said that the current DRM technologies are too complicated for regular users and they are better off purchasing music CDs and ripping the music from them for listening on computers and portable music players. I’m happy that Mr. Gates showed up as a better visionaire than in 1986 when he predicted the famous myth “640kB ought to be enough for everyone”…
Comments (16)
well… you know..
M$ must die, Windows must die. Chose and use alternative operating systems like commercial MacOS X and free Linux distros (like Ubuntu).
Regards
Wow oO way to make a post that has nothing to do with the content of the article.
Oh, geeeez !! I won !!! Yesssss ! I won, horray
, now I must only fill my name below ! Isn`t it great ? ?
iTunes would sell individual EMI tracks, with their DRM removed, at twice the sound quality of existing downloads for $1.29.
Yeah right, 256 KBps is exactly twice as good as 128 KBps! Sure! But ofcourse some consumers are going to fall for this argument.
It might be a step in the right direction for the music industry, but it’s only a small one. As long as their competition (p2p / former customers) is still innovating faster they’re not gonna catch up any time soon.
Hahaha, Ubuntu sucks ass!
Windows 3.1 ftw!
Make that 3.11, old school mofo, yeheas! Fat the whuck!
im also waiting for the new ubuntu 7.04
nice free OS
While i’m happy to see that the industry is in the early stages of changing it’s ways, I can’t help but see this as a hollow victory. These companies are still assholes and the only reason they are removing DRM is they think they can make a bit more money this way. I’m pretty sure that Steve Jobbs and bill gates would be more than happy churning out DRM protected bullshit if it made them money as much money.
I’ll still use bittorrent and i’ll still buy CD’s. Nothing has changed really =p
…
@MellowHexagon
You are correct.
Even the iTunes selling DRM-free music involves an INCREASE in prices!
If they want to strip DRM from music and charge HIGHER prices than DRM’ed music, fine…
To counter that, we should form large groups that buy 1 DRM-free song each. We then share them like crazy!
End result? They only get money from the 1 song that was bought. That’s it.
Then again, why the heck would you pay more for a single when you can buy the whole album and rip/share that?
lol
Now the other 3 major labels need to give in and it will all be drm-free
Funny how they can make removing DRM and charging more for it sound like they are doing us a favour…
Why cant they just do scene standards for mp3s then sell them as legit ? It would be better for everyone.
lol