Puretracks - just says no to DRM

Filed under: Audio, Business, Fun, Games, News, Web services

Puretracks - just says no to DRM

by Dolores Parker Feb 22nd 2007

In a move sure to make consumers dance and sing, Canadian music download store, Puretracks, is going to sell songs online without Digital Rights Management from a group of independent labels: Nettwerk Music Group of Vancouver, Arts & Crafts Productions of Toronto, the San Francisco, Calif.-based Independent Online Distribution Alliance (IODA) and Beggars Banquet Records of London, England. Well known artists from these labels include Barenaked Ladies, Sarah McLachlan, Feist, Metric and Broken Social Scene.

The songs offered will be in MP3 file format and will cost 79 cents and up. The non-DRM catalog of songs is 50,000 strong and, Puretracks will add more on a weekly basis.

Some pundits are claiming the move by Puretracks is the beginning of death of DRM as we know it. They point to Job's open letter denouncing DRM and Bill Gates' remarks to bloggers in December that DRM "causes too much pain for legitimate buyers." With all this momentum against it, one thing's for sure, DRM is losing its beat.

Tags: Arts and Crafts, ArtsAndCrafts, Barenaked Ladies, BarenakedLadies, Beggars Banquet, BeggarsBanquet, Broken Social Scene, BrokenSocialScene, digital rights management, DigitalRightsManagement, DRM, Feist, Metric, nettwerk, puretracks

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

scomofo said 8:24PM on 2-22-2007

i'm no drm expert, but boingboing has an article up today suggesting that puretracks is in fact using drm, despite what they say. http://www.boingboing.net/2007/02/22/canadian_download_st.html

JBT said 9:17PM on 2-22-2007

[cough]
eMusic
[cough]

Jordan Running said 10:10AM on 2-23-2007

More clarification appeared on Boing Boing this morning:

http://www.boingboing.net/2007/02/22/puretracks_drmfree_m.html

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