Jake Smith is a TuneCore customer support representative and editor of the TuneCore Newsletter
After 6 years, iTunes has announced that they will begin selling their entire catalog without DRM protection. This raises a number of questions, and it is important to start discussing now what these changes could mean for all of us in the music industry.
DRM, or "Digital Rights Management", is proprietary code encoded in certain types of files to control where and how they can be used. If you've ever purchased a song on iTunes before and tried to play it on a different computer, a message will come up saying that the computer is not authorized to play the file. iTunes currently allows 5 computers to be authorized for any one iTunes account. DRM protection reaches much further than just iTunes and digital music. Movies, computer software, and video games often incorporate some types of digital rights protection. For example, DRM stops (or attempts to stop) you from ripping DVD movies to you computer or by requiring you to enter a serial number before using a new program you've installed.
From the stand point of the music consumer, there is really no downside to iTunes removing DRM protection. In addition to being able to move music more freely from computer to computer, music purchased in the iTunes store will no longer be limited to the iTunes library or iPods. Files will be compatible with Windows Media Player, non-Apple based MP3 players, video game consoles and more. From the label/artist stand point, the loss of DRM may seem good or bad depending on your personal philosophy. Does it help your career in the long run by making it easier for fans to share, or is it simply less money coming to you for your hard work?
Realizing that the decision to drop DRM protection would be a controversial decision, and in an effort keep ahead of the rapidly growing Amazon store, iTunes announced they would sweeten the deal for labels by finally allowing labels to set price tiers for individual tracks. We are waiting on iTunes to give us more specific information about this and we will make the details known as we receive them.
If you're looking for a more in depth look at these changes, I'd recommend this article from the staff of Macworld (http://www.macworld.com/article/138000/2009/01/drm_faq.html). Some highlights include:
- iTunes DRM free files vs. Amazon MP3, which has always been DRM Free
- What happens to music purchased before the DRM change?
- Will the change affect TV Shows and Movies?
Reports say that this change will be taking place by June. What do you think about this? Was the DRM drop inevitable or is iTunes biting the hand that feeds it? Let us know your thoughts.
About time too, I found the whole DRM contxt ridiculous.
Apple the people company, yeah right.
Posted by: Web Hosting Compariosn | May 03, 2009 at 08:27 PM
Out with the DRM, get rid of it. Make all music free.
We are on a path that will lead us to a time where all music is freely available from anywhere including mobile devices and can be streamed at whatever quality we want. Arguments over DRM are simply delaying the inevitable. Embrace the way the world is going, adapt to it and learn to live with it. Selling recordings of music is part of history now, it is not part of the future.
I'm an artist and I make bugger all from sales of my music. Tough shit, why should I?. I can't demand I should be able to make money from my music just because I make music. That's bullshit. Find another way to make money. Pretty soon more people will have listened to my stuff online that have seen my band live or bought a CD (still sell 'em for those that want 'em) and that is the most amazing thing in the world to me. Worldwide distribution for free.
If anyone is wondering why I'm selling CDs and soon to be selling songs through iTunes - it's because the consumers are just as uneducated about the changes going on as the musicians are. Lots of people don't know what Last.fm or Spotify is yet so for me to reach as many people as possible I need to get my music to all of those places. I'm on last.fm and as soon as I can I'll get my music on Spotify too. I sent mp3 copies of my bands last EP to loads of file sharing blogs as well. I only wish there were more of them.
If you love something set it free... (but ignore the rest of that quote cos it doesn't apply here!)
Posted by: Chris West | March 31, 2009 at 05:31 AM
Just providing some facts
TuneCore does take in or out DRM from any songs. We distribute the music to the digital stores and each digital stores decides at their own discretion how they are going to sell the music - some sell with DRM, some without etc
Actually, at this point, iTunes, Amazon, Napster etc sell music for download with no DRM.
Posted by: JeffCore | March 28, 2009 at 03:32 PM
my music will always be mine. however, when you as a service decide to remove the protection you originally promised, you raise one simple question in my mind; what the hell does TuneCore gain by removing DMR protection??? did you remove it just to piss the artist off, or is there some other sort of pay-off we artists don't know about?
really, why would you do this and what have you to gain by doing so? the artist gains NOTHING.
Posted by: john erickson | March 28, 2009 at 02:41 AM
There is a mistake in the article itunes AAC format files are not compatible with Windows Media Player DRMfree or not.
Going DRM free will mean that some files will be traded among others thats bond to happen in this age. You can find many blogs and websites that are forum based where you can find any music.
It will also mean that some who experience the music will go back and purchase it. Thinking realisticly everybody who gets a mp3/aac file from a friend or whereever wont go out a purchase said persons songs if they can get it for nothing so therefore it has to be a reason why.
For the people who will say that some artist don't care and it will get them exposure ask them this; if its for exposure why are you selling it in the first place you get more people with free than 99 cent or however much it would be
Anything that makes money is a business regardless of if you consider it one or not. So do you want to see a profit if yes you will do what it takes to get one or no and in that case your music shouldnt be on itunes, amazon, cdbaby, tunecore, zune marketplace, etc.
I personally do not and will not ever buy an mp3 or aac file unless thats the only way in hell it can be brought. I will not waste my money on sub par sound quality if they somehow start releasing music on CD quality files i will purchase them.
Posted by: Que | March 27, 2009 at 08:49 PM
About 10 years ago, my son-in-law and I had some VERY heated arguments about intellectual property rights. He thought everything should be "free" and I did not.He was fresh out of college and his mom had been paying the bills.Over the years, his view has changed and he now values that which is created by the mind and soul.Today when he downloads music,he pays for it! Likewise, if I had been asked whether or not music files should Have been DRM'd back then I would have favored that.But my experience as a customer has changed my feelings on that. About 5 years ago I got a message from Real Audio that they were opening a music store and I could, for a limited time, buy downloads for half price. I took the plunge. I downloaded about 120 files. It was great! I had new stuff and old stuff. I tried artists and genres I'd never heard of before. Over the next year I would add to my collection as time and money allowed. The only problem that I experienced was in burning CD copies.Sometimes I could, sometimes I couldn't.But it all came to an end. Real Audio sent a notice saying I needed to upgrade to a newer version of player and that they were throwing in a free radio format that they were now supporting. I upgraded and from that day forward, I have not been able to play,move,burn or access those files.That music sits in the closet on the computer it was downloaded on.I tried in vain to communicate with Real Audio,but all I got was the typical standardized, generic response. Now that I am starting to put my music on the web, I don't want anyone who buys my music to be hassled as to how they want to listen to it.As someone once said,"It's not the lions and tigers that get you, it's the gnats and the flies."
Posted by: Ethereal Eden | March 27, 2009 at 07:27 PM
Who cares if people steal MP3's and AAC files. There should be a strategic marketing plan to show the value of a 16 bit 44.1k .wav or .aif over the degraded sounding blur of an MP3/AAC. They are barely worth fifty cents. I just can't believe consumers are not informed that an MP3/AAC is 10% of the value of a 16bit 44.1k .wav/.aif. That is like taking a gallon of milk and putting it into less than a pint. Where does all that left over milk go?
www.kasiokristmas.com
Posted by: Matt Thorne | March 27, 2009 at 12:34 PM
That was an interesting point Matt G. made about knowing your music will always play is something I had never thought of before. The company Spiral Frog which gave away music for free and generated money only from ad sales just went under - as a result, any music you downloaded from there will "lock" and become unplayable in about 60 days. Not that anyone is anticipating it, but if iTunes never went DRM free and the store went under, what would happen to your library?
Posted by: Jake | March 27, 2009 at 10:36 AM
@MikeAlike: "cheap"? The only cheap thing here was the shot you took at me.
'desperate', perhaps -- I really liked the song, and there were about 2 people I really wanted to apply the clip to in my phonebook. ("I've heard it all before...")
But 'cheap'? Not a bloody chance. I was willing to pay the extra $0.99 that it would have cost me. The song was marked ringtone-capable. iTunes refused to let me do it. It refused to let me do it on my own machine, and it refused to let me do it when I signed in on one of the store machines. The Apple Genius couldn't figure it out. He asked the other Geniuses, and THEY couldn't figure it out. The iTunes Store tech support couldn't figure it out either. I spent over ten hours trying to figure out why I couldn't do it.
Finally, I decided that my time was more valuable than that. So I bought a $10 cable, and did it myself. Tell me, how is that "cheap"? Desperate enough for a ringtone that I'm willing to spend ten times as much on the ability to get it? Sure, it had value.
Too bad Madonna didn't get the chance to see any of it, because she insisted on DRM implemented in software which had a bug that prevented me from being able to create it in the "approved manner".
That's the other part about DRM that a lot of people don't get: Software has bugs. Software often doesn't work. Hardware has bugs. Firmware has bugs. (Remember the mass Zune bricking on 01/01/09?) If that DRM software is buggy... guess what, you've deprived the customer of the music that he's paid for the license/right to use.
The Sony Rootkit debacle is another very good example of a DRM software with bugs -- these ones very serious, allowing any system that had it installed to be taken over at will by some script kiddie.
Posted by: Kyle H | March 27, 2009 at 07:39 AM
iTunes owns the rights to the music its going to remove its protection to?
Lets see here- was it iTunes idea to remove DRM or the multi-group?
What could happen is everybody who wants to get paid could pull their music from iTunes. A artist boycott. I think there are just enough angry musicians to step up and take over.
As for the comment from Kyle H. as to never aggravate the consumer-so the fuck what if a small minority break the DRM rules, if your that desperate and cheap, no ones going to stop you anyway- then again our music must pretty damn good for you to want it that bad, no?
I'd say if your going to break every code to get it, then its valuable.
Posted by: MikeAlike | March 27, 2009 at 06:52 AM
I prefer removing DRM. I will now buy more music than before, because I now that my files will play forever. Imagine I have bought music files with DRM for hundreds or even thousands of dollars and the DRM and/or music provider stops its service... This might mean that I won't be able to play the songs anymore.
So now I feel safe to buy DRM-free music.
Posted by: Matt G. | March 27, 2009 at 06:39 AM
Madonna is a thief. If she isn't using someones words, visuals, idea's, she's marketing enviromental trends and lining her pockets with millions- the evil is she proclaims love is the motivation behind her tactics in her musical scheme.
Did Madonna do a philanthropic investment in the independents ever, no.
She also comes from a corporate business "label" Warner Bros. which taught her how to sell out and take. Warner is also the label which is known to have ruined Prince.
I'm sorry, but Prince is known for being a musical genius, and a complete musical genius- now what sort of support is that from a label such as Warner to make him into a miserable artist?- They did not give a shit and I doubt they ever will. It says alot about them, no?
The music industry cares very much, very much about art and music everybody, thats why they do what they do, correct?
If music is considered to be a charity donation to the public then maybe "consumers"- (is that what their titled when they don't (buy?)) should get Christian music for free. Movies aren't free- concerts aren't free and the cost of a single is no more than a fucking dollar. An album can sell for $5. For the price of one hours work at minimum wage a consumer can get an album for five bucks to listen to for years. A MP3 doesn't expire after one run/play. Maybe if iTunes wants to give music away they will then be sent files which expire after one play.
No?
Posted by: MikeAlike | March 27, 2009 at 01:42 AM
http://xkcd.com/488/ is brilliant, as commentary on this issue.
I'm more than happy to buy music. As long as I don't have to deal with $#!+ like running out of authorizations. Or the following, which is why I purchased a digital optical double-mini-ended cable...
I was trying to buy a ringtone from Madonna, from a song (.m4p) I already had bought, and iTunes just... failed to let me. I took my machine into the Apple Store and the geniuses there couldn't figure it out either. So, I played it from iTunes, recorded it into GarageBand, trimmed it to where I wanted it, and exported it as a ringtone. This also bypassed the $0.99 that iTunes would have collected, and the $0.70 that Madonna's record label would have collected. (I think it's ludicrous to have to pay to get a ringtone of a song that you've already purchased, but that's how the cookie crumbled, and I wanted the ringtone of 'Sorry' badly enough that I was willing to pay for it -- and was stopped from giving the money the artist would rightfully have earned, simply because of the idiotic DRM.)
The lesson here is: do NOT annoy the customer. The customer will either go away and never buy from you again, or will find a way to get what s/he wants without going through you. Either way, you pay the opportunity cost. Either way, you pay for your greed. (How many people do you know of who have said "My career has been ruined because a whole bunch of people downloaded my music from a torrent"?)
Also, I do wholeheartedly recommend that you read (and listen to) all of the essays linked from http://www.baen.com/library/palaver_index.htm -- essays posted by the First Librarian of the Baen Free Library. If you're particularly averse to reading, please at least read #12 (by Janis Ian); it describes some aspects of what happens when you remove DRM from the picture.
Make no mistake: people *will* break DRM, no matter that it's a felony. They *will* do it if you don't make your product available to them. They *will* do it if you make the process of going through the proper channels so arduous that they can't figure it out.
The KISS principle applies.
Posted by: Kyle H | March 27, 2009 at 12:50 AM
This is MikeAlike(myspace.com/mikealike9) Who are the lawyers and which company do they work for that petitioned iTunes to change music management protocol(DRM)?
The majors didn't like the unexpected advent of indies taking control, and lost money, masses of workers were laid off. Do they think they will undergo another mass uprising from independents?
When I read the majors decided to make Myspace into a file sharing site, is when I realized their tactic-
It wasn't always like this...before the age of controlled superstars who manage to dominate, there was an open market...the radio wasn't as programmed, and music from all over the world influenced American culture. We had a British Invasion w/the Sex Pistols and Malcolm McLaren's brilliant marketing of new innovative artists who were completely original(Adam Ant, Frankie Goes To Hollywood), Australia sent Men At Work, Dexy's Midnight Runners and Marc Almond topped U.S. the charts, Nena- 99Luft Balloons climbed...Golden Earring, The Scorpions, New Order, Yaz, even Marilyn made it to the press here. It was pivotal and probaly the most influencial music and art revolution to occur here. Then the borders were shut down- its almost like an Iron Curtain. Domestic law altered the rights of music released from other countries.
I thought the major labels went under? at any rate, there's a difference between music and business. They say you should never business with pleasure.
Next is to go through with a massive, massive, massive complete and factual class action law suit against the music industry/its investors. Anyone who feels they were enticed into a contractual agreement which was intentionally written to ruin their careers can join, artists who were shelved and lost their albums can join, any original author whose idea's were ripped off can join, publishers who never got paid can join, people who were plagurized can join, screwed over by a major label business team...and you will join; the list of horror stories continues. Its time. And its time to fight and end the process which killed creativity, art, passion, For a good,long mother-fuckin time.PERIOD.
Posted by: MikeAlike | March 27, 2009 at 12:40 AM
Oh sorry, I forgot to mention where I will be so you can come sing along.... http://myspace.com/victoriaallen2 has the details as they emerge!
Posted by: Tori Allen | March 26, 2009 at 11:28 PM