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Taking the Lead

Entry 507, on 2007-04-03 at 15:49:30 (Rating 3, Computers)

The news that Apple and EMI have a deal allowing purchasing DRM free tracks from the iTunes music store is certainly unexpected. I had to check to see if it was an April Fool's joke, but it certainly seems genuine. They finally seem to be taking the lead in eliminating the counter-productive technology that nobody wants: DRM.

I have never bought anything from the iTunes store because I refuse to use crippled music when I can get the same thing on CD at higher quality and without DRM, for a similar price. There is no doubt that DRM is holding back music sales, and it's the source of a significant number of technical support issues, according to a recent study. The music industry complains about reduced sales when they are mainly responsible for the problem themselves.

It's unfortunate that the price has been increased when the initial price was already too high, but at least the bit rate has also been improved, so some music (especially classical) should benefit from that.

I hope that people buy this material in preference to the existing crippled stuff. The other music companies are too stupid and lacking in imagination to see what DRM is doing, but if they see real consumer support for this their feeble minds might see potential for extra sales and maybe they will consider removing the protection on their material as well.

I'm sure that if the price was reduced to a reasonable amount we would see a major drop in piracy as well. The distribution costs are practically zero, why not halve the price per track and sell twice as many? Give the consumer a fair deal? No, the RIAA would never go for that!

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