Petteri Pyyny
15 Jan 2004 15:41
British indie record label, Warp Records, has broken the ranks of music industry by dropping the idea of DRM restrictions on digitally sold music. Typically online music stores like iTunes have DRM restrictions on music which means that you can't transfer the tracks freely to anywhere you want and with majority of stores, you can't burn the tracks without paying a separate fee for that right.
Warp Records is the home for various well-known indie artists, including Aphex Twin. Company sells the MP3 tracks via its own web store for $1.39 per track, which is $0.40 higher than the "industry average" set by iTunes for DRM-restricted tracks.
War Records' FAQ states "At the moment labels have skirted around the whole issue of making their catalogue available, often introducing various poorly-supported formats and DRM (digital rights management) complications in the process. We wanted to be the first to take a big step in what we believe is a positive direction, and see what happens".
More information:
The Register
Warp Records