Three little letters, about a year ago, had a death-grip on the music industry: DRM. Seriously, who thought this was a good idea? DRM limits the unauthorized copying and sharing of music. We can see that argument. It also limits what music can be played on certain devices. Should you get a new computer or device and need to transfer your licenses, all we can say is -- good luck with that. We speak from experience.Recently record labels and at least a few online music sellers have moved away from offering DRM-laden music. And today, Napster announced it was making the move to DRM-free downloads. (The company's subscription service still includes DRM) Napster, the service that once offered DRM-free songs (illegally), and then legally sold DRM'd songs, has been reborn into the service it should have been all along -- legal music, DRM-free.
Moving to the MP3 format opens up Napster to a wider array of devices, including the ubiquitous iPod. We're not financial gurus, but we sense this can only mean good things for Napster, and for the music industry as a whole. Music that we can play on any device we might have, on any computer we might have? We might break our music boycott. We might even have the heart to upgrade the circa 2004 Zen Touch to something new. You know, now that we can actually own our music, and not just rent it for the life of the device.
[via Reuters]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1-07-2008 @ 10:44AM
de1phic said...
Personally, I have always loved Napster's subscription service. I'm not one who enjoys a lot of the music being produced today, so I am always looking for something new. The subscription makes this easy to do. Rather than go out and buy cd's that I HOPE I will like, I spend my time downloading new music that I can essentially test drive for a few weeks. I've been able to be turned on to a lot of international, classical, jazz, and genres I normally don't listen to. If I like it, I go out and buy it either through Napster or on an actual disk. I recently started searching through Napster and buying from Amazon. Now I'll be able to do it all through Napster since they'll be offering DRM-free.
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1-07-2008 @ 11:04AM
matt said...
kristin, your comment re: napster now being the service "it should have been all along" is ignorant -- and by that i mean it takes napster to task for a decision that was in the hands of the labels.
the question of whether to sell music as MP3 vs. as DRMed downloads was not one that was up to napster, or rhapsody, or even itunes -- it was/is contractually obligated by the labels.
had napster decided not to sell songs, i suspect they'd be taking flak instead for not even selling music. so i think there's a little damned if they do, damned if they don't going on here.
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1-07-2008 @ 11:27AM
Kristin Shoemaker said...
Matt, point taken. Napster had no choice but to sell DRM-filled music because that's all there *was* on the major labels. But now it *is* the service it should have been all along... regardless of whether the decision was Napster's to make or not. iTunes, MusicMatch or Rhapsody should have been that type of service all along too.
It wasn't meant as a slight so much at Napster, but more at the
backwards thinking on the part of those in the industry that thought
DRM was a good idea.
1-07-2008 @ 12:30PM
James said...
I think people (at the record labels, as the commenter above points out) have finally figured out that the problem with piracy is not the *source* of the material, it's the *distribution*. Only one person needs to get their hands on a non-protected copy of your content, and the genie is out of the bottle, so to speak. Maybe this will be the year they stop bothering altogether (except for subscription/rental services, of course).
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1-07-2008 @ 1:09PM
Kristin Shoemaker said...
Exactly, James. I buy music because I like the song, and think the artist is worth supporting financially. What's distasteful to me most about DRM is that I purchase a song legally, and the labels immediately assume I'm going to give to everyone and their uncle, and put it on a public server for every one to download. So I give them money, and they treat me like I'm dishonest.
There are dishonest people, sure. But DRM hasn't stopped piracy. It's just cheesed off the people that were buying music in the first place. So they either stopped buying, like I did, or they bought physical media and ripped it, or they became pirates.
It's just sort of a wonder to me that it took the labels so long to catch on.