A record company that gets it.

EMI will be selling DRM-free music on iTMS, as 256kbps AAC files. Bravo to EMI. Their catalog includes Ben Harper, Radiohead, Sigur Ros, The Chemical Brothers, Norah Jones, The Band, The Beach Boys, The Beatles, David Bowie and Count Basie, among many others. For $0.30/track, anybody who has already purchased a copy protected track will be able to upgrade to an unprotected track.

Published by Waldo Jaquith

Waldo Jaquith (JAKE-with) is an open government technologist who lives near Char­lottes­­ville, VA, USA. more »

5 replies on “A record company that gets it.”

  1. Doesn’t Apple I-tunes software already have anti-copy measures built into it? My understanding has been that anything purchased through I-tunes get’s a user specific serial number that can be traced back to the specific i-tunes player software. The idea being that if copies of a song you purchased via i-tunes were found being widely distributed over a file sharing network- then I-tunes could de-authorize your player making all the music you purchased through unusable (though I’ve never heard of an instance where this was actually done- the capability supposedly exists).

    So by distributing via I-tunes, isn’t EMI simply borrowing Apple’s Right’s management measures?

    I’m surprised they haven’t just tried to institute a “private copy levy” on all blank burnable cd’s- as a means to re-coup any royalties that might have been lost to piracy. It’s what the film industry does in foreign countries via the MPAA (it’s non-profit political lobbying group).

    In all this isn’t a subject I know much about- since I’m not a big music fan or consumer.

  2. The idea being that if copies of a song you purchased via i-tunes were found being widely distributed over a file sharing network- then I-tunes could de-authorize your player making all the music you purchased through unusable (though I’ve never heard of an instance where this was actually done- the capability supposedly exists).

    Nope, that’s not how it works. Every time that iTunes attempts to play a DRM-encumbered track, it checks with Apple to see if that track has been purchased on that computer. If it hasn’t been purchased using that computer, it won’t play. That’s a bit of an oversimplification, but that’s basically it. The concept of deauthorizing your system and making your music unusable doesn’t exist, because there would be no point in passing around those song files, because nobody could listen to them.

    EMI’s deal with Apple is to sell straight-up MP3s. No copy protection. Just music. You can do anything you want with those MP3s. Copy them to 100 iPods, burn 1,000 CDs, keep copies on a half dozen of your own computers, whatever.

    I’m surprised they haven’t just tried to institute a “private copy levy” on all blank burnable cd’s- as a means to re-coup any royalties that might have been lost to piracy.

    Canada does that, and the RIAA has pushed for it in the U.S. It’s ridiculous.

  3. Quoth the music executive:

    “We believe that offering consumers the opportunity to buy higher quality tracks and listen to them on the device or platform of their choice will boost sales of digital music.”

    *checks calendar* Okay, April 1st was yesterday. What’s going on here??

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