“The head of Yahoo!’s digital music service has called for record labels to allow downloads to be sold free of any DRM restrictions. Dave Goldberg told the Music 2.0 conference in Los Angeles that DRM has created a barrier for consumers between their music and what they can do with it, such as transfer it the portable device of their choice,” Simon Aughton reports for Computer Buyer. “‘There is a cost associated with DRM, and that is lost sales of content,’ he said.”
“What Goldberg did not say was that allowing Yahoo! Music and its rivals to sell unencumbered MP3 files would give them access to the one device that has provided and continues to provide the download market’s dynamic, the iPod,” Aughton reports.
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Nik” for the heads up.]
MacDailyNews Take: Yahoo! has entered dreamland in record time; must have been from staring at that spinning-to-a-billion Apple iTunes Music Store counter.
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Related article:
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“Here’s some thoughts on the theme ‘Information wants to be free’ (move freely)”
Don’t anthropomorphize information. It hates that.
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Actually, I’m just curious–does Yahoo Music allow people to burn to CD? If so, they can move their music purchased on Yahoo to their iPods. If not, well, who’s fault is that?
I’m sort of amused by Yahoo wanting DRM-free music. It would be pretty difficult to “enforce” a subscription model without DRM. So I pay my $9.95, download every song they have, and cancel my subscription.
Personally, I think they’re just posturing.
Exactly right, Peter, which leads me to conclude that Yahoo doesn’t see subscriptions making any impact whatsoever.
Just like Jay, everyone, including me, would head for DRM-free music. But if Yahoo was able to get that concession from the labels, then Apple certainly would too. Mr. Spitzer would be right there to make sure of it.
Which leads me back to Tim, who got me thinking. Apple sells the content at minimal profit in order to sell the device at a much greater profit. In the long run, most assume content will be more profitable than device because the device becomes a commodity (just a bunch of parts and the lowest-cost producer wins). I’ve assumed that too just like Tim. But in a digitized world, is that really going to be true? Or will content be a low-profit entry path for selling something that is less of a commodity? Will artists make little off music sales in order to make big money on concerts?
So: If a device producer already has a large market share that allows for good profits without the need for premium pricing, and keeps innovating with design, features and software, will it become a commodity? Excepting the case of major disruptive change, is not market share plus innovation an insurmountable barrier to entry for low-cost competitors?
” Will artists make little off music sales in order to make big money on concerts? “
In case you haven’t heard, that’s how it works now. In fact, most artists actually owe money to their label. They have to to do tours.
It seems that Yahoo is simply doing this to try to make themselves look like the good guys, or to attract more people to their service.
They must be doing this because they don’t expect Apple to in a billion years, which means it would be EXTREMELY interesting to see what would happen if Apple supported the DRM trashing, too.
May be risky cause they may lose content that way but it’d be a HUGE slap in the face to Yahoo.
Those folks over at Yahoo have been rolling too many trees.
OK geniuses, so no one likes DRM. So figure out a way to keep people from pirating music and providing it in digital, downloadable format. That’s the problem – it doesn’t exist.
DRM isn’t only protecting the record labels, it protects the artist from having their work copied thousands of times without them being compensated for it (of course, the record labels get a large chunk of that money, but the artists don’t starve, either).
Whomever develops the technology to not have DRM but to prevent piracy, beyond asking people nicely not to steal music, will make a fortune. Problem is, Apple’s DRM with iTunes and iPod is the best solution to date.
MDN = DRM fanboys