Apple increasing DRM-free iTunes inventory

TWICE: Apple Expands DRM-Free Catalog

Apple raised the number of downloadable DRM-free songs to more than 2 million and dropped the price of the unprotected downloads to $0.99 from $1.29.
The company, however, didn’t change the $0.99 price of its protected downloads, which are encoded at lower quality than the unprotected songs, in a move that might have been intended to put pressure on other music labels to make their songs DRM-free. In fact, an Apple spokesman said the price reduction on protected songs were not in response to the $0.89 to $0.99 prices on unprotected MP3 downloads from Amazon or a response to Wal-Mart’sannounced plans to offer some unprotected songs at $0.94.

Gotta love the free market in action. The demand for DRM-free music is there, and the vox populi is getting louder.

The bell tolls for DRM, methinks.

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Wal-mart offers DRM-free downloads: is this the Fat Lady singing for DRM?

I know that it galls many of us to cheer anything that the Beast of Bentonville does, but with Wal-mart being the prototypical 800-lb gorilla of the retail marketplace, what they choose to support tends to have some momentum behind it.

TWICE: Wal-Mart Launches DRM-Free Music

Wal-Mart officially added music without digital rights
management (DRM) software to its download service, joining a growing movement to
provide digital “unprotected” music that can be downloaded to almost any
portable digital device.
Wal-Mart will sell DRM-free songs from record
labels including Universal Music Group and EMI for 94 cents each or $9.22 per
album at www.walmart.com. The songs can be
played back on devices including the iPod, iPhone and Zune.

...

The current Wal-Mart DRM-free catalog includes a few
hundred thousand songs out of a total of more than 2 million songs (including
DRM-protected songs) on the site.

The DRM-Free option keeps gaining ground in the marketplace. I would characterize Wal-mart's participation not so much as the Last Nail in DRM's coffin, but more like a Stake through DRM's heart.

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Naxos to offer DRM-free paid downloads

Once again, progressive record label Naxos leads the charge, doing the right thing for their customers.

Marketnews: Naxos To Offer DRM-free Classical Music Downloads

Naxos, a budget classical music label widely credited with
having transformed the economics of the classical recording industry since its
launch in 1988, has just turned its sights on the downloaded music arena.
Classicsonline, contends, the firm, is a dedicated classical music download
service offering a wide range of classical music, accessible by sophisticated
search engines optimized for classical music. “It is intended to become a
one-stop destination where music lovers can find virtually every piece of
classical music ever recorded,” says a blurb on the Web site. Besides the
classics, the service intends to offer a “good selection of classic jazz, blues
and folk recordings [not available in the United States] as well as a
representative collection of world music.”

It's fantastic to see a record label not only understand what customers want, but be willing to give it to them!

If you enjoy classical, make sure to keep tabs on Naxos' excellent company blog, here.

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Best Buy to sell DRM-free music downloads

In case anybody thinks that all I do around here is look for new and cynical ways of pillorying companies for acting in stupid and shortsighted ways, here's a breath of fresh air.

TWICE: Best Buy Digital Music Store To Offer DRM-Free Music
Best Buy said its Best Buy Digital Music Store will participate in a test by Universal Music Group that will give customers the chance to purchase music unprotected by Digital Rights Management (DRM) software for the same price they would pay for protected music.
“Our customers have shared their frustration around DRM protection and we have listened,” said Jennifer Schaidler, music VP for Best Buy. “One of the most appealing aspects of digital music is the freedom it can provide to enjoy music wherever and whenever you want. Taking away DRM protection will help digital music live up to this promise.

Now, I'm going to go way out on a limb and speculate that if given a choice, all many consumers would rather buy music downloads that play without a hitch across all of the hardware platforms that the consumer owns, and doesn't make random mp3 players seize up, or report their activities back to Big Brother. If the DRM-free downloads cost the same, I imagine that it would take the consumer about a picosecond to make their choice.

Call it a hunch.

I don't know how experimental this experiment is, from Best Buy's perspective. They're not especially innovative on their own, so they wouldn't throw their weight behind this unless they really believed that it will pay off. Kudos for them. More importantly, if Best Buy is seen to do well with selling unadulterated music downloads, it will snowball to other content providers, and quickly!

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