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Does DRM Enable Online Music Innovation?
chia_monkey writes "An article at the Tech Law Forum asks the question 'Does DRM Enable Online Music Innovation?'. The piece looks 'at the range of legitimate online music distributors to see just how much the presence or lack of DRM affected business models.' It's a rather interesting read as the author breaks down seven online music stores (iTunes, Napster, Yahoo! Music, Zune, eMusic, Amie Street, and Magnatune...four of which use DRM and three that don't). The article mainly focuses on the ownership and 'renting' of the music (which can be seen with the 'buy the condo downtown' and 'rent a mansion in the slums' analogies) and how it applies to innovation and perceived business models. The numbers don't lie ... price-per-download is the clean winner while DRM-based models also take the lead. Will the market shift toward subscription based models in the future? Or, will DRM go the way of the dodo bird (as Steve Jobs has already proclaimed his preference for)?"
DRM Is a delicate balance. I have friends in the industry from struggling artists, to record managers. The biggest complain I hear from my friends touring to death is the amount of piracy that goes on. Fans will come up to them bragging about how they copied their cd from a friends. When you have limited appeal every merchandise sale counts.
... or anywhere else for that matter.
Thats why many of them put their music on itunes and tell them to download the songs from it. No easy piracy, increased hassle free distribution.
I have yet to buy a RIAA/ big label record from Itunes
Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
Damn, some nerd I am. I'd heard of allofmp3.com but had no idea how great it is. Between that and last.fm I think I've got all the online music I need. (Sorry if this comes off as advertising; it's not meant to be.)