James Delahunty
7 Jan 2008 17:03
Following what seems to be a current trend, Napster will begin offering music downloads without any Digital Rights Management (DRM) restrictions within a few months. The brand "Napster" can claim a lot of the responsibility for building consumer interest in compressed digital audio files during its less-legitimate days as the dominant P2P application, but as a legitimate service it can only follow behind Apple's iTunes thus far.
Napster users will soon be able to buy DRM-free downloads of single songs or full albums from the service, but of course, the monthly subscription "rental" model should remain unchanged. While certainly a good announcement for consumers, Napster didn't have any extra details to offer up including any details about pricing or what major labels will be offering their DRM-free content through the service.
All the big four major record companies have either already started, or have announced plans to sell DRM-free music downloads through other outlets. "The ubiquity and cross-platform compatibility of MP3s should create a more level playing field for music services and hardware providers and result in greater ease of use and broader adoption of digital music," Napster CEO Chris Gorog said in a statement.
Gorog admitted to the Wall Street Journal that Napster is still currently negotiation terms with some of the major record companies. The DRM-free downloads will be available in the second quarter of 2008 in the MP3 format.
Source:
Ars Technica