Universal Goes DRM-Free, Thumbs Nose at Apple

Music giant Universal has never been too thrilled with Apple's apparent stranglehold on the music downloading market, and now it's found a novel way to stick it to Steve Jobs: through DRM-free music, no less. Who will win the feud, Apple or Universal? Who cares—in the end, the dust-up is great news for music lovers. Here's why.

According to the New York Times, the music giant (which represents such artists as the Black Eyed Peas, U2, and 50 cent) will begin offering some of its massive catalog DRM-free through such services and online retailers as RealNetworks, Wal-Mart, Amazon.com, and even Google—but not on iTunes. Universal will sell some (if not all) of its DRM-free tunes for 99 cents a song.

Universal's "test," as the company is calling it, comes after the news in April that EMI and Apple were partnering on copy protection-free music on iTunes—the only wrinkle being that the DRM-free songs would sell for $1.29 a song versus the normal 99-cent charge. (Full albums of DRM-free music still sell for the same price.)

Now, it's no secret that the big music labels have always strained under Apple's iTunes/iPod yoke. They've been desperate for such concessions as variable pricing for individual songs instead of the flat 99-cent fee on iTunes, but because of Apple's overwhelming share of the music downloading market, the big labels haven't had much leverage.

But Universal has gone further than most in trying to break Apple's near-monopoly, first announcing last month that it wasn't renewing its long-term iTunes contract, and now by prepping DRM-free music sales—at 99 cents a song (well, potentially, at least)—with everyone but Apple.

Now, I'm not arguing that Apple's the big bad monopoly and that the music labels are the underdogs—far from it. After decades of sticking it to us with massive margins on CD sales, it's been a pleasure watching the major labels suffer under Apple's reign.

That said, it's time for another shake-up. I firmly believe that DRM-free music will—and should be—the future. We're paying good money for our tunes, and we should be able to use them on all our devices, be they iPods, Gigabeats, Walkmen, or Xboxes. And while I was pleased by the Apple/EMI deal, the $1.29-a-song pricing scheme is a bitter pill.

So if Universal's strike against Apple means we're getting more DRM-free songs for less money, I'm all for it. As the Blu-ray/HD DVD battle has taught us, competition tends to breed better and cheaper products. Bring it on.

Related:
Universal Music Will Sell Songs Without Copy Protection [The New York Times]