Posted on: April 2, 2007 in Music
iTunes and EMI to drop DRM
The speculations were rampant, and today Apple and EMI announced that they will begin selling DRM free tracks. This is great news for pretty much everyone. Other rumors swirling about the joint EMI/Apple press conference involved the Beatles music finally being made available for download, and that rumor turned out to be false. Likewise, speculation about a yellow (submarine) iPod filled with the collective works of the Beatles also failed to materialize. (That one was more April Fools then the rest)
Interesting is the ‘premium’ price iTunes has attached to the DRM free tracks - $1.29 as opposed to $.99. I’m not sure I like the positioning of ‘DRM-free’ as something consumers will need to pay more for. Rather, I think a forward looking online music store should use the ‘DRM-free’ moniker as mechanism to differentiate itself from their many online competitors. eMusic, for example, has always offered DRM free music, and I would still choose to purchase music through them, rather then a DRM-free (but premium priced) iTunes store.
I’m sure the reason for the premium price is to lure other major labels into offering DRM free music as well, and so it’s really a small price to pay to watch the walls of DRM crumble and come crashing down.
April 2nd, 2007 at 11:30 am
I think another reason is that the 30-cent difference is to add psychological value to the “premium” content format, and to discourage people from giving that away.
April 2nd, 2007 at 3:01 pm
Adam,
Good point! Charging a premium will create a increased sense of ownership. But I’m still not convinced that it will change a users decision to place content on a P2P network, or to burn a cd for a friend.
In fact, you could argue the opposite point, saying that since I paid the extra 30 cents for unencumbered music, to *not* give it away would be to *not* realize the full value of the purchase. Paying the extra 30 cents may in fact encourage people to share a track more readily, since in that’s a ‘privilege’ they’ve essentially purchased.
Interesting thought though!