Universal to offer DRM free music in 6 month trial, snubs iTunes
By Ema Kwiatkowski
Starting August 31, until January 31 of 2008, US music lovers will be able to purchase DRM free music from Universal Music Group (UMG). MP3 content will be available through the Web sites of a number of retailers, including Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Best Buy Co. Inc. and Amazon.com Inc., as well as artist and label-branded Web sites, such as ryan-adams.com and islandrecords.com. The one place you won’t be able to download DRM free music…iTunes.
Furthering the EMI vs UMG rivalry, deepened when EMI announced that they would be selling DRM free music through iTunes, UMG has announced that their DRM free music will not be available on iTunes. This follows its announcement at the start of July that it will not automatically offer all its music for Apple to sell through iTunes.
Even if you can’t buy it through iTunes, at least you will be able to play it on your iPod, or whatever device you have. DRM Critics have argued that copy protection unfairly prevents people from playing music or videos they purchase on any device they want and it is the number one complaint with music fans. NME further explains:
“For Universal to do this is basically the death knell for DRM,” said Adam Benzine of music industry bible Music Week. “Within two years I wouldn’t expect to see any record labels using DRM at all.”
To facilitate users finding this DRM free music, UMG has also teamed up with Google to use their Adwords advertising service. The idea of connecting Google ads to consumers directly should help make the search and purchasing process much easier because many people use Google to search for music online, UMG explained.
The death-knell of DRM is definitely music to many music consumer’s ears.
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