Skip to Content

Submit your nominations for the Luxist Awards' Best in Decor
AOL Tech

Filed under: Audio, Internet, News, Windows, Macintosh, P2P

Upper management not so keen on DRM, anymore

Is DRM headed the way of the Dodo bird? Depends on who you ask. In a recent survey, performed by Jupiter Research, 62% of European music execs said DRM free music would sell at a quicker pace, and 54% felt current DRM systems were too restrictive. A divide still exists however, as only 48% of major label execs felt DRM was holding back sales, compared with 73% of independent label execs.

I forecast during the last week of 2006 that DRM was going to die a pitiful and ugly death in 2007. Even Steve Jobs recently argued that DRM needed to go, much to the surprise of anyone who's given much thought to the link between iTunes lock in and iPod's success story. So we're warming up for DRM's big funeral, right? Not so fast. Jupiter analyst Mark Mulligan warns, "Despite everything that has been happening the record labels are not about to drop DRM, even though all they are doing is making themselves look even less compelling by using it."

DRM is a lot like hiring Barney Fife to guard your record store. He irritates the paying customers while the shoplifters just laugh behind his back and walk away with the merchandise. How much longer can the Fife-like DRM hang on to a job it does so poorly?
jobs & resumes
iPhone developer

Groupon - Chicago, IL (2 weeks ago)

See More Relevant Jobs ›

Featured Time Waster

The World's Hardest Game 2.0 - Time Waster

So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do. Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game. The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...

View more Time Wasters

Featured Galleries

Defective by Design, London: Protest Pictures
Microsoft Security Essentials
Chromium Pre-Alpha on CrunchBang Linux
Safari 4 Beta
10 Firefox themes that don't suck
IE8 RC1
Download Squad at the Crunchies After-Party
Download Squad at the Crunchies
WordPress 2.7
Cooking Mama: Mama Kills Animals
Windows 7 Hands On
Comodo Internet Security
Android First-look: Amazon.com MP3 Store
Android First-look: Twitroid
Google Reader Android
Android Hands-On
Twine 1.0
Photoshop Express Beta
Mozilla Birthday Cake
Palm stuff
Adobe Lightroom 1.1

 


Follow us on Twitter!

Flickr Pool

www.flickr.com

More Tech Coverage

AOL Radio

Joystiq

TUAW

Daily Finance

Autoblog

Urlesque

Engadget

WoW

Switched.com

FanHouse