Honestly , given the amount I publish about Digital Rights Management , you ’d think that I ’d rather the manufacture keep open using it , just so I ’d continue to have fodder for writing and piece of writing — and occasionally talking — about it .
As I was look into the flight of DRM in this preceding yr for my latest spirit at DRM , a pattern begin to emerge . We ’ve learn the preponderance of DRM - barren medicine rocket over the last twelve months , with vendors like iTunes , Amazon , and Napster all connect the legion of the undamned . In fact , it ’s practically gotten to the detail where it ’s news when a company launch a store thatdoeshave a DRM scheme .
By embracing DRM - free euphony , the record labels have in the end admitted the truth to themselves : not just that the cat ’s out of the bag , but that he ’s high up - bob it halfway across the state . The levels of buccaneering were already immensebeforethe late DRM - free push , so the music companies cling to onto rights management was like polishing the brass on theTitanic .
Instead , the labels have redefined their foe : sure , they ’re still concerned about the shadowy legion of faceless file - sharer nonchalantly swap MP3s , but shadows are by nature intangible and hard to immobilize down . It ’s much gentle to struggle an enemy that you may see , one that does n’t incommode trying to shroud from you .
Like , say , Apple .
That ’s right : Apple is now formally the labels ’ number one enemy — with a bullet . As the largest purveyor of medicine in the U.S. , Apple support tremendous sway over the music - buying population . And that intelligibly worries the record companies . The labels are used to being the ones controlling the dispersion of their product , raking in the lucre on every birdcall sold , but more and more , that power is being consolidate into Apple ’s hands , thanks to the overwhelming market place share of the iPod and iTunes .
So the phonograph record company are run to contend back anyway they can — even if it means conceding the war on plagiarization . And make no mistake : that warhasbeen concede . By sell DRM - free music , the record labels are tacitlygiving that music away . Since digital filing cabinet can be copied with no red of lineament , it take only one written matter of a song in the natural state to make that song freely available to anyone .
The label ’ machination put Apple in an interesting position . The record companies believe it ’s in their best interest to foist DRM onto Apple ; they desire that the additional core will level the playing field and give the other download pose a fortune to contend by providing DRM - free track that operate just as well on the iPod . But it ’s a pyrrhic strategy : yes , the record companies can render and undercut iTunes by flooding the net with crummy , freely - tradeable songs , but they ’ll wander up thin the value of their ware even more than they already have — if such a thing is even possible .
Plus , there ’s no guarantee such a plan will even work . The potential to recoil is mellow , too : because iTunes ’s market place share is so large , the record caller ’ continued refusal to rent Apple deal more DRM - free music is actuallyencouragingthe very same whorl - in that got them into this pile in the first place .
And so far it has n’t worked : regardless of the land of their DRM , iTunes remains far and aside the leading source of music downloads . So far , the immense majority of music - buying consumers have show no house of abandoning iTunes because of its DRM , showing that Apple has the momentum , design acquisition , and marketing savvy to convince mass to go along to grease one’s palms from their store , even when the same production is available with fewer limitation elsewhere .
The labels ’ insistence on using DRM was the first of the ending for their business model . If they ’d adapted to the focus the market was going seven or eight years ago , they might have had a chance at retain onto the reins . But now there ’s only really one question will : will Apple carry off to destroy the track record labels before the record labels manage to destroy themselves ?
