14 Feb 08
Play.com - DRM Free in the UK Apple and Music
Today, Play.com has started selling DRM-Free MP3 tracks. This follows the success of Amazon launching their MP3 Download site last year, although sadly this is still only available in the US. Briefly you were able to access it in the UK by simply putting in a fake US address, but they seem to have caught onto this ruse.
When it launched, Amazon claimed to have "Earth's biggest selection of a la carte DRM-free MP3 music downloads". At the time it had more than two million 256kbps MP3 files from more than 180,000 artists from more than 20,000 labels, and since then they have struck deals to allow DRM-free music from all four major record labels (most recently Sony and Warner).
Play.com is the first serious attempt however to try the same trick in the UK, although Amazon have announced their intention to sell DRM-free music worldwide through the Amazon MP3 store beginning later this year.
Before I go any further, a quick recap. DRM, (Digital Rights Management), is a method of restricting the type of computer or the number of players a music file can be transferred to. So this stops you buying a song for your MP3 player of choice, and then putting it on your girlfriends as well so she can listen to it too. The new service from Play.com, (dubbed PlayDigital), includes all tracks and albums available in DRM-free MP3 format, enabling you to use PlayDigital music with any MP3 player, including iPods and desktop players like Winamp, iTunes, and Windows Media Player.
So, DRM-free music is a good thing. Last year, the market leaders Apple started selling DRM-free songs through iTunes from EMI, and has been slowly adding to the collection. Time will tell if PlayDigital will make a substantial dent is Apple's winning position, as top digital music retailer of choice. Play says that it anticipated that deals would be brokered with other record labels in the next six months, hopefully this will be the case, because it has been proved time and time again that DRM simply doesn't work. As pointed out in an open letter by Steve Jobs in February 2007, the only people who really want DRM are the record industries, not the consumers or the artists.
"Imagine a world where every online store sells DRM-free music encoded in open licensable formats. In such a world, any player can play music purchased from any store, and any store can sell music which is playable on all players. This is clearly the best alternative for consumers, and Apple would embrace it in a heartbeat. If the big four music companies would license Apple their music without the requirement that it be protected with a DRM, we would switch to selling only DRM-free music on our iTunes store."
Back in November, speaking on behalf of UK music retailers, ERA director Kim Bayley told the Financial Times that the copy protection mechanisms are "stifling growth and working against the consumer interest." Citing a recent study conducted in the UK which indicated that consumers overwhelmingly prefer music without copy protection mechanisms, Bayley says that DRM "puts consumers off."
Tracks will be available from 65 pence and albums from £4.95, cheaper than iTunes. So the race is on, iTunes Vs Amazon Vs Play. The global availability of the MP3s can only be excellent news for customers. Hopefully the only loser in all of this will be bodies the British record industry's trade association, (BPI), who have been treating their customers like criminals from day one.