Drop DRM

We’ve already seen more and more musicians telling the recording industry to drop DRM policies that hurt the consumer – how many of us have been introduced to a band via a home recorded mixtape/cd?  And, of course, we know that consumers prefer non-DRM’d music (which sorta goes without saying).  Now even music retailers (except Fopp now that they’ve gone) are wondering what the recording industry is thinking.  A group of UK retailers have banded together to urge the industry to drop DRM altogether in order to help boost sales over Christmas.  Of course, in the past, we’ve seen the recording industry insist DRM was needed to protect both the artists and the retailers — but it certainly looks like both are finally realizing what many have said all along: the only thing that DRM “protects”  is the obsolete business model of the record labels.

I think it will be a good few years of testing and trialing until the Industry stabilises.  It has been in control for many, many years and now it sees the consumer with more choice and more of a say how it wants the product delivered and at what price.  When there are established artists such as Radiohead and Trent Reznor offering “pay what you want” downloads it’s no surprise that there is going to be another shake-up

News grabbed from Techdirt