Dave Horvath
8 Jun 2007 20:34
In an interesting turn of events, the world's largest music label Universal Music thinks that it can get a better market share for legally downloaded music if it drops their current DRM practices. In a business study, Universal wants to dabble with the idea that financial gains from the sell of unprotected music just might outweigh the production costs and slump of sales in DRM encrypted downloads.
This experiment from Universal comes just two months after EMI decided to bed with digital giant Apple. This could be a good move on their part to combat competition in the music industry, but rivals such as Warner Music feel that a move like this would just open the floodgates on piracy.
Universal's experiment will last for only a short time, in which they will gather data and come to a conclusion on whether or not this is a good move later this year. Other companies such as the second ranked SonyBMG stated that if the music conglomerate decides to drop its current copy protection standards that it and other companies will be forced to do the same to stay competitive in the market.
In contrast, Warner has inked a deal with Lala.com to provide copy protection free music available for share, provided the company gets royalties on a per-play basis. Warner has also stressed that other means such as this need to be put in place, but DRM should not be taken away.
To add steam to Universal's idea, EMI launched copy protection free songs on iTunes in the UK for just 99p per song. Although there hasn't been any official sales releases, Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon raced to number 10 in overall sales in the US and number 5 in the UK.
There is still a lot to look out for in the way of DRM-less music available through legal means, but it appears that record companies just might be finally seeing the overall restrictiveness of DRM as whole.
Source:
Times Online