Sony BMG Officially Dumps DRM! All Music Freed!
Sat Jan 12, 2008 12:58PM EST
See Comments (8)
Confirming the rumors from a week ago, Sony is indeed going DRM-free with its music. The original plan unveiled was going to work in a typically absurd Sony fashion: You would have to visit a Target or Best Buy, purchase a "Platinum Music Pass" card for $12.99, then go home, visit musicpass.com, enter the code on the card, and download the album, DRM-free. Why people wouldn't just buy a CD and rip it at home instead of going to all that trouble is beyond me... and Sony must have figured that out in short order, because the DRM-free tracks are now, finally, coming to Amazon, along with those of all the other Big Four record labels.
This move means that virtually all music titles will now be available from the Amazon MP3 store, free of Digital Rights Management restrictions. Apple's iTunes store, by comparison, still has DRM-free tracks from only one provider, EMI (though it is expected to announce at least one more next week at MacWorld). After the tracks arrive later this month, Amazon will carry 3.25 million DRM-free tracks vs. iTunes' 2 million, and Amazon's number is growing.
On a broader note, this is of course great news for fans of open standards and foes of restrictions on how we use the media we rightfully pay for. While some have pegged this as a bellwether for the same thing happening to movies, I think that's a long way off, if ever. The markets are just too different, and so far the anti-DRM winds just aren't blowing Hollywood's way.
Still, it's a great day for music consumers. Celebrate by queuing up some Sony-approved Britney Spears or Tenacious D.
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2 Posted by alan_r_cam on Sat Jan 12, 2008 8:55PM EST Report Abuse
iTunes makes it easy to put music on an iPod, but mighty hard to reverse the process. Previously, this was justified under "DRM". What's the excuse now? It may be time to evaluate MediaMonkey...
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3 Posted by james_tca on Sat Jan 12, 2008 9:44PM EST Report Abuse
I'm very happy with these news!!! I think this is the way to go since even with DRM it is still possible to download MP3s for free from the Internet. At least this way they will make some money. Let me share with you why I think this way: Story #1 (frustration with iTunes): I've always downloaded pirated MP3s from the web. Sometimes it took me a while to find a working link but being a student it was worthwhile. Now that I've got a job I decided to start buying MP3s online. I first went to the famous iTunes and bought my first MP3 song! I felt good for helping the artist just to feel immediately frustrated when I realized that I could not play the song on my MP3 player cause I don't have an iPod... My reaction? I just Googled the song and downloaded a pirated version for free! Story #2 (bad experience with RealAudio): Since buying songs from iTunes was out of question, I decided to give it a try with RealAudio. I was able to buy the song in WMA format and when I copied it to my MP3 player it worked! I was happy with the experience until the day I wanted to record a CD to listen in my car. When I copied the songs to the CD, all of them worked except for the one I bought from RealAudio. I was amazed to get the message that "I didn't have the right to burn the song into the CD!" My course of action? I Googled the song and downloaded the free pirated MP3 version... Story #3 (finally a good experience with Amazon): I think Amazon MP3 downloads has a great future ahead of it. They make the MP3 downloads really easy, they work on my MP3 player and I was able to copy them into the CD without any problems. So what do I do when I want to get a new song? I first look in Amazon to see if I can download and pay for it. If I don't find it in Amazon, then I just go and get the pirated version. My conclusion is that iTunes and RealAudio are really making my life difficult to contribute to the artists work... And I'm thankful to Amazon since at least there I can buy some of the songs the 'legal' way.
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4 Posted by rorbincalendar on Sat Jan 12, 2008 11:53PM EST Report Abuse
james_tca story sounds much like my story and many of the people that I know. The only difference is that I researched before buying at any other site(itunes, etc). I would NEVER buy from a company that tried to restrict the way I could use what is legally mine. After Chris Null announced the opening of Amazon's site I tried it out the same day. I have since downloaded hundreds of songs from Amazon. Here's hoping for the death of itunes and others like them. Viva la Amazon! Thank you for throwing your weight around to benefit us and yourselves. A win win for all....CAPITALISM!!!!
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5 Posted by agustin2489 on Sun Jan 13, 2008 11:25PM EST Report Abuse
Cool, this is very good news. iTunes is basically dead now.
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1 Posted by traineric on Sat Jan 12, 2008 2:59PM EST Report Abuse
If major record labels dump DRM (digital rights manegment) that means some of Itunes competition that use DRM, Real Networks, Microsoft Zune, and other big DRM music compines what will happen to them this might be a bad idea for the music market.