Ah, DRM. Digital Rights Management. The bane of any music lover’s life. Believe me, it really gets on my nerves, I’ve seen it on iTunes. You download a song, it’s packed with DRM, and you can only play it on that PC, one iPod, and if you want to set up a new PC, you only have the ability to add a limited number of machines that you’re allowed to play music on.
Annoying.
So, it’s nice to see any news that shows the industry’s moving towards scrapping DRM, especially since all it does is annoy the listener, whilst doing naff all to stop people “stealing music”, as the record companies call it.
So, I was rather pleased to see a press release from Vodafone, stating outright, that they’re switching their music store to provide DRM-free tracks. So, you’ll be able to download a DRM-free song from their music store, and play it on any PC, phone or mp3 player, you like!
Let’s face it, it’s the only sensible way to go. If you sell people a song, then tell them that they can’t actually listen to it on their phone, because it’s not setup under their licence agreement, they’re going to get a little bit annoyed. So, a big kudos for Vodafone, for getting EMI, Universal and Sony to sign up without DRM.
It’s better than that, though, because Vodafone are the longest-established mobile network in the world. By any definition, they’re one of the big boys in the business. Ok, they haven’t got all the big labels signed up yet (Warner and BMG are the ones holding out, which surprises absolutely no-one), but they’re well on the way, and with one major network going down the DRM-free route, it’s pretty much a given the others will follow suit at some point, even if just to remain competitive!
What with U2 signing up with RIM (I’m betting on a U2-flavoured Blackberry Storm appearing, and, ooh, the Storm’s a Voda-exclusive), and a coalition of actual musicians and artists (and I mean big names, like Robbie Williams) today saying they don’t think downloading songs is illegal, it would seem the times they are a-changing for music downloads!
This is what’s known as a goooooooooood thing!
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