Microsoft wants to drop DRM too
Let's get down with DRM, says Microsoft.
It’s fairly obvious that this is a response to Apple’s lead, but a Microsoft spokesperson was quick to highlight that EMI’s deal with Apple wasn’t exclusive. The spokesperson also claimed that the company has been discussing the possibility of offering DRM-free music on its Zune player with EMI and other record companies “for some time now”.
The question, of course, is whether Microsoft will expect consumers to pay more for DRM-free music in the same way that Apple has done so?
At this moment in time, we don’t know the answer to that and it is likely to depend on the record labels. Thus, it looks likely that DRM-free tracks are going to cost more if Apple’s deal with EMI is anything to go by.
One thing is for sure, Microsoft has made quite a dramatic u-turn after Steve Jobs’ open letter to the recording industry, which called for an end to DRM. At that time, Microsoft claimed the letter was naive and irresponsible – oh how times have changed!
Whatever the case, this news is surely not going to please the RIAA, but then most people want to stick two fingers up at the organisation for one reason or another. Got a thought? Share it with us in the forums.
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Discuss in the forums ReplyI can't wait to see Zune v2 if Microsoft do eventually go DRM free, it's only a matter of time.
I guess they thouht it would only be the technical of us who would care, how wrong they were....
Power to the people is what I say.
The problem is that it's not for Apple to make this decision.
But at least the article points to the possibility of a "Plays For Sure" that actually "plays for sure". That would be good.
suppose but surely they would be able to have some leverage over songs that they have allready sold to existing customers.
Sure, DRM free would help the zune, but the iPod would win in the end...
I agree.
If iTunes had sold DRM free music from the beginning they would have potentially sold 100x the amount of music.
I remember reading recently that iTunes have sold roughly 20 songs for every iPod sold. Now considering how many iPods there are that number may still seem high, but the fact that people have preferred to load music onto their iPods by other means points to a serious problem.
Now that problem won't exist much longer, I think iTunes is going to explode.
Indeed.
However I would suggest .aac could become the standard format rather than .mp3 as it offers much better compression.
CD's (too expensive) > DRM'd downloads (lousy quality DRM more expensive) > non drm'ed downloads (lousey quality, even more expensive)
where are my better than cd quality cheaper than cds with no drm'ed downloads?
Perhaps better in terms of sound quality, but .aac has been supported for some time now amongst portable audio devices.
Far, far on the horizon unfortunately.
The average joe was satisfied with 128 bit-rate music for quite some time now, and the move to 256 was long overdue.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V_sign#The_V_sign_as_an_insult
Yep, holding two fingers up in the US won't get much of a reaction.
Again though, much of this was not down to Microsofts choosing.
To attract support from hardware and software companies Microsoft had to show that their OS was heavily constructed around DRM...
Personally, I have a Neo mStation mp3 player in my car, sits in the boot with a remote control up front. I've upgraded the hard drive on it to one that can hold 250gb of music. I would love to see an iPod that can handle that much music, as loads of people are now getting iPod ready car head units.