[mythtv-users] DRM Music on it's last legs - Another prediction comes true ahead of schedule.

[Ryan Steffes]

On 8/10/07, Brian Wood <beww at beww.org> wrote:
> On Friday 10 August 2007 06:47, Joe Borne wrote:
> > In all honesty, Moore's Law is in effect on this process in a way I
> > never predicted. I did see these events unfolding as we discussed in a
> > previous thread, but this is so much faster than I thought it would
> > happen.
> >
> > From Slashdot, 8:46 AM EST:
> > **********************************
> > "Universal Music Group, the largest music company on the planet, has
> > announced that the company is going to sell DRM-free music. The test
> > will see UMG offering a portion of its catalog — primarily its most
> > popular content — sold without DRM between August 21 and January 31 of
> > next year. The format will be MP3, and songs will sell for 99 each,
> > with the bitrate to be determined by the stores in question.
> > RealNetwork's Rhapsody service will offer 256kbps tracks, the company
> > said in a separate statement. January 31 is likely more of a fire
> > escape than an end date. If UMG doesn't like what they're seeing,
> > they'll pull the plug. UMG says that it wants to watch how DRM-free
> > music affects piracy rates."
> > **********************************
>
> The attitude of the vendors seems wrong. They act as if they are doing us some
> great favor by making free (as in libre, not gratis) tracks available, either
> charging more or limiting the availability. They are trying to make
> us "thankful" for something we should have in the first place.
>
> I'm not sure how they are going to measure trhe piracy rates, and any
> professional pirate can get around their DRM anyway.
>
> Would they tell us if the piracy rates actually go down, and sales go up?
>
> --
> BEWW


I'd wager it's actually more of a hardball bargaining technique to get
more cash per song out of iTunes.  My guess is they want to see if
there's enough market interest to put a noticeable increase in vendors
like Wal*Mart and Best Buy at the expense of iTunes  to see if they
can demand more per song from iTunes in exchange for letting them sell
DRM free songs.

Ry