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Sony Announces DRM-Free Music at Amazon
sehlat brings us a New York Times report that Sony has agreed to start selling DRM-free music from Amazon's MP3 store. This comes days after Sony revealed plans for physical MusicPass cards that would allow DRM-free access to a small portion of Sony's library. Now that all four major record labels are on board with Amazon, some are expecting Apple to make moves away from DRM as well. From the NYTimes:
"Sony's partnership with Amazon.com also underscores the music industry's gathering effort to nurture an online rival to Apple, which has sold more than three billion songs through its iTunes store. Most music purchased on iTunes can be played only on Apple devices, and Apple insists on selling all single tracks for 99 cents. Amazon, which sells tracks for anywhere from 89 cents to over a dollar, offers the pricing variability the labels want."
i think we might be the only ones here right now. why don't we talk this over? i really think we still have a chance.
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
He wants to know why suddenly everything down there is now... FROZEN!
Multiplayer Gaming (defined): Sitting around, discussing single-player games with my friends, at the bar.
Those of you who feel that the free market has no recourse against the large corporation and cartel, take note - this is the voting power of your dollar at work. Or, the lack of the dollar thereof, specifically.
It didn't take dismantling of the RIAA, court-ordered cessation of their ridiculous lawsuits, or legislative intervention to protect the consumer - it took your disillusionment with the industry and unwillingness to part with hard-earned cash to pay for crippled formats and less freedom with the content you purchased.
The next step will be the determining factor in the future of media sales. Will you buy MP3s, unrestricted, for a reasonable price? Or will you continue to download it for free via Limewire?
Option A will reinforce a reasonable business model that will benefit the industry, the artist, and you.
Option B will reverse the progress that has been made.
Choose wisely, Indiana Jones...
*sigh*
Apple already moved away from DRM with EMI and "iTunes Plus" tracks. They were the first online music reseller to do so.
Come on Sony, give iTunes some DRM-free love. You know you want to!
Hurry. Us Brits have just got into work.
Apple had become too powerful and arrogant, so basically the labels had become more scared of Apple than of the consumers.
Plus you get a nice plastic case, sleeve notes & a nice shiny disk that sounds better in a reasonable hi-fi than any lossy downloaded file.
Oh, and did I forget to mention that good music albums (of which there are thousands) do not have just one or two good tracks - that particular property is reserved for the "great unwashed" who never shop beyond the shelves of their local supermarket for music.
You mean ***PAY*** someone to cause the heads of my hard disk to write a few ones and zeroes????
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
he's not talking. but while you are here, let me just say that i love you guys. the football, the literature, the sitcoms. you all have done some great stuff. i know - there's lots more but that's what i see most often.
and you may gloat in your gmt, me being stuck in gmt -5 right now. but next week i'll be in gmt +1. we'll see who is who then, wont we?
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
Apple would love to "make moves away from DRM." Obviously they will do this as soon as the RIAA-signatory record companies make the DRM-free music available to them. The DRM is not central to Apple's business but is something the record companies forced on them to make the initial deals that created itunes.
After Jobs released the memo linked above, EMI made DRM-free music available to Apple, and Apple immediately started selling it DRM-free. Of course they'll do the same with the other labels.
Unfortunately, they didn't think to also drop their geographic restrictions, so this is only available to their US users. I can only presume that they got pressure from the music industry to do this, because they think they can get more out of people in their own countries. Of course, it really just means that overseas Linux users will either download the files illegally or they just won't listen to big 4 music at all.
X-Has-Sig: yes
Will they also eliminate the famous rootkits from the media?
Maybe Computers will never be as intelligent as Humans.
For sure they won't ever become so stupid. [VR-1988]
I argued it before here that DRM is a dead end, killing itself by limiting it's own market. And apparently this is really happening, and happening so much that it's starting to cut in profits.
Apple has more or less a stranglehold now on the market, and the labels demanding DRM on their music help Apple maintaining this stranglehold, and block e.g. Amazon from selling music that plays on the iPod. After all, when they must use DRM, they can not use Apple's DRM, and thus the market for Amazon and the rest is limited to the non-iPod market. And that market of course is small, and no serious competition for Apple.
The only way out for the labels, the only way to break Apple's hold including the demands of one price for all songs, is to drop the DRM requirement. And finally they do so - it started of course with some iTunes-plus songs, and then one after another the labels realised that they themselves are locked in by DRM as much, if not more so, than the consumers. Even "rootkit" Sony BMG apparently finally realised that.
Now the only thing I can hope for is some real competition. US$ 0.99 (HK$ 7.7) for a single song is imho way too expensive. For that price I can buy complete movies (legal, mind you - old ones, but still, a complete movie, on VCD, sometimes go for HK$10 for two). A new movie on VCD costs here HK$ 40-50, a DVD costs about HK$ 90-120, a music CD costs HK$ 70-100 for local artists and HK$ 110-150 for overseas artists. This for legal copies, not the cheap illegal import from China.
So now finally the labels have cut the DRM from the songs, allowing Amazon and presumably soon other vendors, maybe Microsoft or Yahoo, to sell songs without DRM. Amazon is now selling a lot at prices lower than iTunes, this will likely attract customers away from iTunes. iTunes is getting competition, and may be forced to lower their prices. iTunes may also decide to give up on their DRM, the lock-in is broken up by the supply side and there is no need for them to put on the DRM. After all adding DRM costs money: it takes computer cycles, requiring more computer power; it requires extra logic on their chips or software in the iPods, etc. DRM less media is cheaper, even if only marginally so.
So will Apple give up on their DRM? Sure. I'm really sure they will. Maybe not anytime soon, but as soon as Amazon et. al. get some traction, they will. As soon as there comes a real competitor to the iPod, they will do as well just to keep there store going.
Why thank you. I just hope that the BBC opens up the iPlayer to you guys in a reasonable manner. Of course, it is a truth that the U.S provides much of the best items of British television too. I expect we see just the best of what you have to offer, in the same way that you only get our best bits.
... questionable... policies of the current administration. But let's face it the U.S is still a scientific and cultural powerhouse.
It's fashionable to bash the U.S at the moment, largely due to some of the
Have fun in GMT +1 land next week - if you really want to get up that early, that's fine with me.
Of course, but remember that the definition of "reasonable" is that the price is something both seller and buyer will agree on.
Until the current pricing has proven to actually be reasonable, nobody knows if we're there yet. The "reasonable" price for a song could very well be $0.01 per song, and then the current uncrippling of extremely over-priced songs wouldn't prove anything.
Installed the Bubblemon yet?
Satan "feels a bit chilly, puts on sweater"
Does anybody seriously believe that Apple wants to have DRM on iTunes ? Of course not - after all it was Steve Jobs who penned the open, anti-DRM letter in the first place.
What the record companies are attempting to do here is break iTunes' monopoly on music downloads. They see the way to do this as supplying another retailer with a superior product (ie. DRM-free music) whist still insisting that iTunes sells DRM'ed tracks. They are then hoping that people will move over to Amazon's system, killing iTunes, whereupon they will then either declare DRM-free a failed experiment and re-lock the music, or force you to download entire albums only, or set variable pricing, or any other nefarious scheme they have dreamt up.
If you believe that the record companies have 'caved in' or are doing this out of the goodness of their own hearts, then you really need to develop a healthy sense of cynicism, and quickly ! The record companies are actually being incredibly anti-competitive here, allowing one sales channel access to a superior product that they deny to another.
iTunes has been a massively positive force for music downloads - it offers a-la carte choice and fixed-price downloads. It's extremely easy to use, and, well, just works. The record companies were handed a 'get out of jail free' card for internet downloads, something they hadn't been able to figure out themselves, and all they can do in return is attempt to bring down the very system that saved their necks. I think this says something about their mentalities.
The thing is, I don't think this will change anything. The average consumer values convenience over DRM, and nothing is as easy to use as iTunes. Eventually the record companies will have painted themselves into a corner, or will face a legal challenge from Apple, and all have to offer DRM-free on iTunes. Either that or Apple will do deals directly with the artists (lets' hope) and leave these backstabbing, money-grubbing bastards out in the cold.
Until music producers start using open source software to produce and mix music, I refuse to pay for it. The vast majority of studios use proprietary software that runs on Windows and Apple operating systems, and their music suffers for it. It is a sign of narrowmindedness and sheep-like thinking that is reflected in their art.
Continue to not buy Sony or sony media products because of their payments to congress-kritters who create laws like DMCA, copyright extension, etc la.
Sony - FUD. Redundant by design.
Pathological kinda promises Path + Logical - but instead, you get stuck with pathetic.
If I want an old sixties song, it is not worth 99c. No wonder Limewire flourishes. Old music should be more like 10c a track, then piracy can be combated. Apples rigid 99c rule has been a big impediment to the uptake of digital sales. And the music needs to be at a higher bit rate. 128kbs became popular when everyone used dialup. I would prefer 320, the very least 256. If I am paying for a track I want some audio quality. Apple do not own aac, it is a part of mpeg, the other music players can use it if they want, once it is free of DRM. But, again at a higher bit rate. my ten cents worth :)
Man, I'm really feelin' the love in this room.
From the guys that gave us the root kit come DRM free music? Whats the catch here? I have my doubts, experts out there, please check if this is true before i dive in.
Thanks in advance, and please post it on /.
Someone forgot to take their Prozac this morning...
You're expressing frustration, but don't paint "the other sources" as the way to go. Of course it takes effort to get the bands signed to a download store... this is what we all cheer for, "sticking it to the Big Label".
What you're describing is a market opportunity for labor. As I understand your post, once the majority of small labels are signed, you'll be content. This becomes a When-Not-If scenario. My projection is three years if a dedicated negotiating force buckles down with no more white noise interference.
Then there will always be the bleeding edge bands who formed last week, and it will be the thing to do to get them signed as a favor, in return for comped cd's *for services performed*.
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
Quote:
IN 2006 EMI, the world's fourth-biggest recorded-music company, invited some teenagers into its headquarters in London to talk to its top managers about their listening habits. At the end of the session the EMI bosses thanked them for their comments and told them to help themselves to a big pile of CDs sitting on a table. But none of the teens took any of the CDs, even though they were free. "That was the moment we realised the game was completely up," says a person who was there.
ich bin der musikant
mit taschenrechner in der hand
kraftwerk
Hear, hear!
Hmmm, with Amazon's move into the digital music download market, I wonder if they are considering making music purchases available to Kindle owners. It has a built in mp3 player and a pretty fast wireless download capability. Wouldn't that surprise everyone if an e-Book became the oft-discussed "convergence" device before the cell phone did.
The more you regulate a company, the worse its products become.
Never, never, never trust these idiots. Don't run the risk that they will include some additional "content" but call it something other than DRM.
They will never have my business again. They proved themselves untrustworthy and only fools ask to be taken twice.
Because of copyright, there's only monopoly. If you want to listen to Daft Punk, you HAVE to get it from Virgin Records. There's no legal free market. So piracy (an illegal free market) is the only response possible. If VR put their releases at a price acceptable to most of the market, there will be little piracy. If they overprice or limit access to their release, piracy will increase.
While there's copyright, you either have to agree that piracy is part of it or stop talking about a free market.
you linux-using whiners have to inject "gotta use open source here" in everything don't you? It doesn't make a difference what platform they use, DRM is DRM. quit your fucking bellyaching!
btw, you not making your meager purchases of barry manilow and the beegees doesn't make a dent in their pockets...:)
The fish and chips are cool, but I'll never forgive you for the Spice Girls and Duran Duran.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Now that the content is there (or getting there), Amazon just needs to improve upon their already excellent store. Why can't I have a "wishlist" of songs I want to download? Right now I have a text file of songs I want, I just haven't gotten around to buying them yet. Shouldn't I be able to mark tracks for downloading later?
This is the key, I think. The labels want to play Amazon and Apple off eachother in order to push prices up.
So...to buy music online...you have to go to a meatspace store?
Why not just buy the fucking CD at that point?
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
I think it is a good move on Sony's part to release DRM-free music. But it is too soon to start buying their stuff. They are still Sony.
No, they are Sony Music. Big difference.
Don't forget the Blu-Ray DRM. With the region codes they intend to spring if they win the format war.
What? Why? That's not even under Sony's control, that's part of the Blu-Ray spec that a lot of companies developed. Heck, even HD-DVD uses the same DRM and SOny had nothing to do with that. And you are only SUPPOSING they plan to spring the region codes out.
What you meant to say (or what you should have said) was, remember the rootkit. However doesn't it seem like at some point if a company does something positive you like you should reward them instead of constantly punishing them? It's like if a cat actually decides to use the litter box for once, you go and taze them. Well don't be surprised if you find Sony peeing on your shoes again if you refuse to support the good actions they take.
And don't forget the rootkit fiasco. As I understand it, Sony continues to plant trojans on their CDs, they just don't contain rootkits anymore.
Oh, there's the rootkit. If you are upset with (again, supposed) "trojans" on the CD's, why not then punish THAT aspect by not buying the CD's and buy nice unprotected MP3's instead? How is Sony supposed to know which action is unacceptable?
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Apple seems to be dragging their feet in converting from Fairplay-restricted to DRM-free.
Incorrect, it's up to the label to allow this. SO far no label but EMI has (and some independents).
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I'm going to throw this out there, but what are people's opinions about different DRM-free retailers?
I have liked Amazon for their ease of use, but their encodings are usually only 128-bit MP3s. I just found 7music, but haven't tried them yet. AudioLunchBox has nice encoding choices, but their music selection has been greatly limited in my experience. I used to have a subscription at Emusic, but the subscription model does not feed my desires.
They will never have my business again. They proved themselves untrustworthy and only fools ask to be taken twice.
In other words, Once Bitten Twice Shy -Ian Hunter (MOTT the Hoople)
mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
but amazon only sells drm free tracks - and itunes sells a few drm free tracks.
True, but Amaxon is selling tracks in the universal format. Apple is not. Tracks from Amazon will play in by son's iPod, my daughter's Creative Zen, my Coby MP3 player, and in my living room DVD player. Itunes tracks on the other hand will play on my Son's Ipod and a couple computers and nowhere else. The choice of music vendors is simply a matter of compatibility for many. DRM is a compatibility issue. So is formats other than MP3.
The truth shall set you free!
Now if they would just end the lawsuits I could buy music again..
B5 71 ED FB 55 D6 4E 68 07 25 E2 FA CA 93 F0 2F, is mine! All mine!
A year or two ago I would have agreed with you. But now, there are quite a few players with AAC compatibility. Even my phone plays AACs. As it becomes more common, MP3 compatibility is going to be less and less of an issue for people. If the Apple store ever becomes entirely DRM-free, it will be a pretty good source for music for a lot of people with non-iPod players.
-- OpenVerse Visual Chat: http://openverse.com
Makes you wonder why the guy above you got a 4 insightful and you, one who responded in kind to his comments got a 2. /. pretends to be a techie site, in reality, its just a bunch of techies in dank server rooms on a power trip.
/. or Digg. This comment will never get enough score so it will be a buried footnote on the whims of the mods.
Give me a break. So Sony makes its music DRM free. Even now its the bad guy. I haven't seen 1 blurb on this site about how this was a good move or something. And believe me, when the rootkit thing hit, I was against Sony as well. So to people who say "Sony is evil" or whatever, I say, make up your mind. I am going to Amazon when this is live and getting some SONY music.
On a related note, you kow what's evil. Pretend democratic site like
U.S. only.
I've tried to purchase a track at Amazon already two weeks ago. I was turned down. They only sell to buyers located in North America.
17779 eligible voters in a district, 17779 'vote' as one. This is Russia.
Um... Why is this even mentioned in the same post that's talking about them selling through Amazon as well? You can criticize the point of their "music pass" all you want, but they seem to be trying to do both that, and regular digital distribution. How would that be "not getting it?" It would seem like they're "doing it," plus something else random.
Man, me too. I love you guys. Group-mind hug.
P.S. Anyone else find it hilarious that the subject line is still "Re:Go fuck yourselves"
Fool me once, shame on you.
Fool me twice, shame on me.
How many Yugos do you have to buy before you realize that every one is a bad car?
The Rootkit breached the license agreement with Microsoft, compromised the kernel, allowed anybody who could create an executable named $sys$****.com / exe to run - without showing up on the stack and they created a massive "phone-home" scam that stole your bandwidth and sent private data without your permission to their servers.
This is a massive intrusion and there is not a single reason on this earth that we should ever buy a Sony/BMG music/dvd again. Make it hurt. The decent artists will leave and other labels will pick them up. Sony/BMG acted like we were criminals and in turn violated Title 18 of the US Code.
Put them on the same shelf as anthrax, small pox and fascists. Things better locked away forever.
If they were nuts enough to do it once - they are nuts enough to do it again. Lock them out of the market.
I'm glad to see this modded as "Funny", because as a commercial producer/voice over artist, and fan of Linux, I would LOVE to use open source software, but everything OSS for audio production is total shit.
If someone writes an OSS multi-track audio editing package even CLOSE to the likes of Adobe Audition, or Pro Tools, I will be glad to give it a try. In the meanwhile, I will use the best tool for the job.
Because you need the actual physical presence of the card before you can acquire the music.
Yay, you can get it through Spamazon. And wait 3-4 days for it to arrive.
Instead of signing in to an actual SERVICE, setting up an account, hooking it to a credit card, paypal, gift card, etc, and start buying stuff IMMEDIATELY.
This is the very definition of Head Up Ass.
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
I work in the Digital group at Amazon.com. This will change. Look at Amazon Prime: initially US only, now available in Europe and the Far East.
It will take time for the details to be finalized, but it will change.
Posting as AC for obvious reasons...
Lots of players play AAC files, yes, but only iPods* can play AAC files with apple's fairplay DRM. I think thats what the gp was talking about.
*ipods are the only portable music player that can play fairplay restricted songs. Of course they can also be played on WMP and Realplayer, etc on a computer. In addition I think theres 2 or 3 motorola phones that can also play them (and iphone, obviously).
Or they're one of the over six billion people who don't live in the US and have no access to Amazon's store.
You have my vote!
mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
> And wait 3-4 days for it to arrive.
You must have the slowest dial-up connection in the world.
Slightly disreputable, albeit gregarious
Clue: CD's are digital. Distributing/Selling CD's is distributing digitally.
"Digital" is not a valid term distinguishing 'network transfer/download of information' from 'transfer of information on a physical medium', when the information in both cases is "digital".
And of course you apparently missed that this is Sony announcing actual online download via amazon.com, without requiring any physical purchase at a store, unlike their previous announcement which did require physical purchase of some sort of card.
As far as whether it might make more sense to buy your digital music in a physical medium (eg, on a CD) than buying it in online downloadable form, is probably going to be dependent on the price of the online option. (The ability to buy single tracks versus having to buy 12 to 15 in a package on CD at once might also weigh in, as might the methods of payment they accept)
I have what I think is an awesome idea for Amazon. Give everyone who buys mp3s a free S3 storage account. For every mp3 purchased, create a virtual link to the file in their S3 account.
Now you have a backup of all your purchased music at no charge, which you can download at any time at standard S3 download rates. And, of course, you can feel free to use that S3 account for other purposes if you like. But there's no monthly fee for storing the mp3s since Amazon only needs to keep a single copy of each song for all users.
They are selling songs, same as everyone else, through the Amazon MP3 store. (Or will be making their catalog available at the end of the month.) "All four major labels will be part of our service." Not, "Three major labels will be a part of our service, and Sony/BMG will sell these random cards which you then have to wait for, then use the code to download everything later on."
As in, both. They just also seemingly want to try to retain a physical presence that ties in with whatever digital download service they pursue.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monopoly
Apple does not have a monopoly. They may have a large market share but it is not a monopoly. Others offer the same service.
qz
It is less of an issue as more player now take more formats, but many players simply have not joined the multi-format pool beyond 2 or 3 formats with MP3 as the only common denominator.
Take an Ipod of any model, Creative flash player of any model, most Cell phones, Zune, Car stereo with ability to play off a USB thumb drive, and any portable DVD player. Now make a list of all supported formats for each and look for the one common denominator. It's still MP3 and nothing else.
The truth shall set you free!
About a week ago someone pointed me to Amazon Mp3. I vaguely remember hearing about it a few months ago. I cared for the news then about as much as I do about every other online music service -- not at all. But this really is different. I am all for some of the high quality independent musicians out there, and all the ways to get good free music. But unless I am horribly inept in my searches, I think there is something to say for the quality of record-label backed music. Higher production values, more time and money to work on the music, I don't know what it is. While I would love Flac online, that is an unrealistic expectation, and 256Kbps VBR mp3 files are pretty damn good. I can say that I am now, finally, done with CDs. All the artists I could think of, with few tiny exceptions, are available on Amazon. Those few were probably with Sony. Just like I exorcised floppies from my life 5 years ago, I think I can do the same with CDs soon. The music is great quality, cheap, no restrictions, and just oh so easy to buy. (Yay 1-click patents!). As for using it in Linux, as some may be interested in. Individual tracks are a normal browser .mp3 download. Downloading an entire album downloads a .amz file, a tracklist more or less, that is opened by an amazon proprietary downloader, that queues and resumes files. While I would prefer a zip (or better), this is reasonable given that they want tighter integration to people's wmp and itunes organizations, and less disk space usage on their ends (storing an album twice - either that or zipping on the fly). The windows Amazon Mp3 Downloader works under WINE, mostly. It will D/L the album if you don't touch it, just let it do its thing. The program crashes if you try to operate it, but that isn't needed. The FAQ says that a Linux downloader is in development. I wish they just gave specs on the .amz file instead. Someone would have made a nice Amazon Mp3 downloader and it would be in my distribution repos by now. (I haven't looked at the .amz files myself yet, it can't be that complicated.) But still... this is great. My CD collection was fun when it was small, but it has become a large piece of furniture over the years. This is finally some real progress.