DRM free music is a tantalising prospect. Previously this idea was no more than a wet dream to techno-liberals but one which, given the entrenched attitudes impoverished imaginations and mindset of monopolists, was only ever an idle fantasy in the real world.
Except that there are several intriguing news reports over the past couple of months that have made the possibility of unrestricted digital music seem attainable. When this does happen the changes to the technology landscape are likely to be profound and upset some of the big players. Several weeks ago music industry execs were heard mooting the possibility of dropping DRM on digital releases and today Steve Jobs, owner of digital music distribution (come on, let’s be honest), was saying that he felt that the music industry was wasting its time.
A number of factors seem to have led to this play: the PR fiasco of Sony’s rootkit adventure, The music industry hating the fact that Jobs has their balls nestled menacingly in his hand. The failure of more secure distribution formats, the weak sales of digital music compared with unprotected CDs etc etc.
The death of DRM would set an interesting precedent for films and quite why Jobs would seem to be encouraging things that would undermine his empire is unclear - the allegation is that for Apple DRM not about protecting music as much as it is about locking users into the iPod device and the iTunes store, though Jobs says that since only 3% of music on an iPod is bought from his iTunes store this cannot be so.
Maybe Steve is feeling stressed out by competition regulators, such as Norway’s, getting on his case? Certainly the mp3 market would be energized by liberation from iTunes - hell even Microsoft’s sucky Zune would stand a chance if everyone could download from someone else and use it in any player.
But while for for him to suggest it seems a bit like turkeys asking for there to be two Christmases a year it isn’t: it is a subtler protectionist play. If European regulators succeed in opening up Apple DRM to competitors it will allow Microsoft to expand into the market and compete more strongly with its WMF format and therefore sell more of its hardware, both Zune and the utterly crap Media Centre.
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