April 2, 2007

EMI/iTunes DRM free music, yay or nay?

Written by: Eric  |  Category: Entreprenews

I’m leaning towards nay. They’re adding almost 1/3rd more to the price to enable us to do what we should rightfully be able to do to begin with. I find it comical that they’re finally offering higher quality 256kbps for that additional $.30 too which should have been an option from the get go.

Jobs says that they’re trying to give us what we’d get if we’d just bought the CD and ripped it directly. In defense of that, full album purchase prices remain unchanged, encoded at 256kbps, and are DRM free. But isn’t the beauty of buying music online getting to choose which songs you want? You can read more about the announcement here.

I can’t imagine what would happen to my father’s paintball business if he sold $99 gun for use on his fields only, but if you wanted to take it to another field, he’d tack on another $30. But hey, they give you a free barrel plug if you do that (which should come with the $99 gun anyways). I have a feeling everyone would buy their equipment on the internet for much less and play wherever they want.

Maybe it’s a step in the right direction, but it’s certainly not a giant leap for mankind. What do you think?

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About the author, Eric
An automotive ace and real estate mogul in the making, Eric originally created YGG all by his lonesome self. Feel free to stalk him on twitter.

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4 Comments

  1. Wes Bos said on April 3, 2007...

    I agree whole-heartedly with you. At first I was pumped to hear that they were finally offering DRM free music, but there is always a catch. The extra 30 cents is lame, I don’t think that it will stick.

    Companies are starting to get it, tv is going for free on the net, mp3s are drm free. This is just one baby step on the way to the giant companies understanding the internet.

  2. Ross Hill from Thrive said on April 3, 2007...

    That’s right Wes, baby steps for monolithic companies.

    They’ll get it right one day - we should be glad that companies like EMI are open to what their customers want.

  3. Travis said on April 3, 2007...

    I’ve yet to purchase anything from iTunes and don’t plan to anytime soon. If I were to, removing that DRM seems to be a walk in the park anyways.

    I agree that it’s the beginning of free media.

  4. Dame said on April 7, 2007...

    It is truly about time. The music industry need to realize if they don’t start embracing this new media. All they’re going to do is lose money year after year. Because within 5-10 years or maybe even sooner, no one will be buy music in stores anymore. Everything will be brought online. It is a very good move for EMI.

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