This is big:
If you're into DRM-free music, you have a reason to get pretty excited today. As speculated, Amazon has launched the public beta of its new digital music portal called Amazon MP3, which will feature two million songs from 180,000 artists and 20,000 labels, all without the painful and annoying restrictions of DRM. The press release claims that the site, which will include EMI and Universal tracks (take that, Jobs), will make separate songs available for $.89 or $.99, and boasts that all of the "top 100" tracks will be priced at the former, lower amount. Albums will range in cost from $5.99 to $9.99, with the best selling albums coming in at $8.99. Of course, since there's no DRM, users are free to throw the 256Kbps MP3s on any player they like, as well as burn CDs, copy to MiniDisc, and dump to 8-track.What this means is that there are no software restrictions on any music you buy and they are not tied to a specific MP3 player. You're as free to use any of this music as you are if you bought it on CD. (There are still legal issues with copying the music, but no technological prohibitions.)
This is a big step in a positive direction for making digital music much more user friendly. I hope Apple follows suit. It's a shame that the iPod is such a beautiful, easy to use MP3 player hindered by user unfriendly iTunes and restrictive DRM music.
I also hope they eventually start selling DRM-free digital videos, but I'm not holding my breath on this.
1 comment:
First, I do agree that this competition is great for the consumer. I also agree that DRM-free is preferrable.
That being said, as other websites have noted, the decision to allow DRM-free songs is really up to the music companies, and not the online vendor like Apple. So it is not at all Apple's fault that DRM exists on such a great number of tunes. Indeed, there are music companies like Sony that will not release on Amazon's service due to the fact that they do not want DRM-free copies of their music sold.
Also, keep in mind that in some cases the music companies may be actually making the songs more affordable through Amazon just to try to break the hold that iTunes has on the market. Again, not Jobs fault.
Indeed, Jobs issued a very public statement calling for all record companies to issue DRM-free music. So DRM is hardly the fault of Apple.
As for iTunes being "unfriendly"...I'd say it still is by far and away the most user friendly interface of its kind. That is a huge reason behind its success.
So I applaud Amazon for giving the consumer another option, but I do not at all blame Apple for the existence of DRM. That is solely the fault of the music companies, if you believe it is a fault at all.
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