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Companies Eye DRM-Free Downloads
Though the larger music industry still 'experimenting'
Reuters suggests that there's been a slow push in the music industry toward DRM-free music, but as a recent Associated Press report showed, examples of major labels exploring this option are scarce. While eMusic has seen considerable success, and there's a number of legit businesses who say DRM makes good business sense, there's no real evidence that the larger music industry is ready to make the jump. The report focuses on the possibility of DRM-free music downloads from MySpace, Yahoo Music, Limewire, & Amazon.
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brianiscool
join:2000-08-16
Tampa, FL

brianiscool

Member

DRM

Rid DRM what a Nemesis
B04
Premium Member
join:2000-10-28

B04

Premium Member

TYPO in Article!

Please delete this comment after fixing.
businesses who say DRM makes good business sense
I believe you meant to write somethig like "businesses who say omitting DRM makes good business sense".

-- B

TechyDad
Premium Member
join:2001-07-13
USA

TechyDad

Premium Member

DRM Free is the only way I'd buy music online

I've already bought Barenaked Ladies songs online as DRM free MP3s. I'd consider eMusic, but I'm not sure about the monthly subscription fee. I might not download enough music to make it worth my money. (Plus, they don't let you browse their artists before signing up.) Still, I'd buy from them before buying a track on another service that locked your purchased music up with tons of restrictions. I don't care if the restrictions are easily bypassed (e.g. burning to CD from iTunes and then ripping to MP3), I want to just buy my music and be able to use it as I please.
amungus
Premium Member
join:2004-11-26
America

1 edit

amungus

Premium Member

Re: DRM Free is the only way I'd buy music online

Well, actually I've used eMusic, and I must say that it rocks.

You can search their catalog. It took me a bit at first, but I wanted to do exactly that myself before giving them a cent.

»www.emusic.com/search.html

Also, you can just put up some dough, buy some music, and then cancel. They just want to keep you coming back for more, which, if you find any music you like, might be worth it.

Just my 2 cents. If they had more major label stuff, I'd have no trouble at all keeping a subscription with them.

Either way, if you can find music you like there, it's well worthwhile. Unbeatable prices, NO DRM, and a very easy to use client downloader.

POB
Res Firma Mitescere Nescit
Premium Member
join:2003-02-13
Stepford, CA

POB

Premium Member

Re: DRM Free is the only way I'd buy music online

said by amungus:

Well, actually I've used eMusic, and I must say that it rocks.

I second that. The only bitch I have ever had with eMusic is that when you want to cancel, they don't do so out the gate. They sit on the notice of your cancellation for like a week or 2. But if you don't have a problem with $10.00/month, then don't sweat it. The DRM-free music selection is worth it and there are a boatload of outstanding indie bands that you otherwise would never hear on Clear Channel Sux radio.

TechyDad
Premium Member
join:2001-07-13
USA

TechyDad to amungus

Premium Member

to amungus
Thanks for the link. I'll check it out. It looks like their cheapest plan is $9.99 per month for 30 songs. Given that the usual amount per song is $0.99 per song, I would only need to download 11 songs per month to make it worthwhile.

Still, I think I prefer the pay-per-download model rather than the pay-per-month subscription model. There are quite a few months where I don't care about any new songs. If I got charged $9.99 in a month where I didn't download any songs, my price per song would skyrocket in the months where I did buy songs.

I do appreciate eMusic for providing DRM-free MP3s though and wish them well. I just don't think the subscription model works out too well for my listening habits.

asdfdfdfdfdf
@Level3.net

asdfdfdfdfdf to TechyDad

Anon

to TechyDad
»www.emusic.com/browse/all.html

You should give it a try. The lowest service is $10 so you are risking about as much as if you were to go out and buy one cd.

I was skeptical about subscriptions, but at 33c a track it tends to promote a willingness to graze and try new things. When you buy by the track(and at $1+ a track)you tend to only buy things that you already know you like, but you also can miss out on things worth listening to, so both approaches have their benefits.

asdfdfdfdf
@Level3.net

asdfdfdfdf to TechyDad

Anon

to TechyDad
You should have a look around magnatune as well. Drm free, try before you buy, and you have flexibility in paying what you think the material is worth.

»www.magnatune.com/

Sly
Premium Member
join:2004-02-20
Tennessee

1 recommendation

Sly

Premium Member

DRM is obsolete

I have never ever ever purchased any music that has DRM on it and I never will. Besides it is so easy to circumvent I don't see what the big deal is. Give me any song and in 1 minute I will have a backup of it.

dadkins
Can you do Blu?
MVM
join:2003-09-26
Hercules, CA

1 edit

dadkins

MVM

Re: DRM is obsolete

said by Sly:

... Give me any song and in 1 minute I will have a backup of it.
Less than that! In the 3.5 minutes it takes for a single to play, I can have the entire CD ripped.
88615298 (banned)
join:2004-07-28
West Tenness

88615298 (banned) to Sly

Member

to Sly
said by Sly:

I have never ever ever purchased any music that has DRM on it and I never will. Besides it is so easy to circumvent I don't see what the big deal is. Give me any song and in 1 minute I will have a backup of it.
If it's so easy then why not buy DRM music anyways? Since it will only take a minute of your time to get rid of the DRM. Your comment doesn't make sense.

Sly
Premium Member
join:2004-02-20
Tennessee

Sly

Premium Member

Re: DRM is obsolete

said by 88615298:
said by Sly:

I have never ever ever purchased any music that has DRM on it and I never will. Besides it is so easy to circumvent I don't see what the big deal is. Give me any song and in 1 minute I will have a backup of it.
If it's so easy then why not buy DRM music anyways? Since it will only take a minute of your time to get rid of the DRM. Your comment doesn't make sense.
Because I don't want to take even the one minute that is required to re-encode songs with DRM. I would rather buy a "clean" song. It makes perfect sense. Sorry you got confused...
spk0379
join:2006-09-02
Orlando, FL

spk0379

Member

Re: DRM is obsolete

plus, I'm sure, you dont want to reward companies that provide flawed merchandise.

asdfdfdfdf
@Level3.net

asdfdfdfdf to 88615298

Anon

to 88615298
You are indicating what you find acceptable by how you spend your money. If you don't find drm acceptable you should refuse to buy material with drm, regardless of how easy or difficult it is to circumvent because you are only reinforcing the production of such material in the market.

People need to understand that it isn't in the interest of the consumer to allow themselves to become trapped in these drm schemes. Techies may find it easy to get around drm at the moment but you are hurting market trends. As vista is released, with it's protected code path, people's ability to load drivers etc. is increasingly constrained to protect copyrighted material and drm is more deeply integrated into hardware it will become more difficult to circumvent anyway(we are only at the beginning of their dreams of total lock down). The larger point is that the consumer needs to speak on this issue before we head further down this road. The further we allow things to go the more profound the consequences and the harder it will be recover the open pc from the grip of attempts to turn it into a closed black box to protect copyrighted work.

dvd536
as Mr. Pink as they come
Premium Member
join:2001-04-27
Phoenix, AZ

dvd536

Premium Member

DRM

If you can see it or hear it, it can be copied. emusic is good but their library is a bit on the slim side.
BellVictim4
Premium Member
join:2006-04-17

BellVictim4

Premium Member

Internally, they're already doing it

I'm the 1-person IT support for a music-biz pro in Ontario.

For at least 18 months now this person has been signed to an industry-serving site whereby they get emails notifying them of available new music downloads available. All the current stuff, pre-release (review-ready), radio edits, etc... .WAV format no less. Digitally watermarked (»en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Di ··· atermark )? I'd be surprised if not.

But the biz is already doing it inhouse to the industry so some experience in non-DRM encumbered logistics is being presently gained.

In terms of polycarbonate DRM - it's a joke. I routinely am handed CD's labelled as having DRM, or even "WILL NOT PLAY IN COMPUTER CD DRIVES" and rip the audio using kindergarten tools. I dunno why they even bother with this DRM... (AIUI any CD that can be played in an audio CD player - Red Book standard - is ripable). So any implementation was bound to be a failure? A waste of money?

I don't have any experience with online DRM because my client is 'old school' and like the physical, hard copy so often buys them at the local store.

I wonder if one day DRM-free will prevail and shareholders may hold the idiot lawyers & DRM-purveyors to account for this debacle. The ill will generated by infringing upon the rights that users feel entitled to (easy interop of music between devices), busting grandma/grandchild for downloading MP3's, poor implementations (think Sony rootkit) etc - well, you just can't buy that kind of negative public perception.

And to the foolishness of DRM at all - even if DRM could have been implemented successfully the analog hole (»en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An ··· log_hole ), as mentioned by dvd536, always existed.

{{ignore this dupe-post evader line}}
short09
join:2006-07-21

short09

Member

i dl

my music for free and always will
cant nobody stop me from doing that