Photo courtesy of SeenyaRita
December 8th, 2008 – If you read other blogs, you know that people love to speculate about Apple. There are always dozens of “substantiated” Apple rumours at any given time. As well, many of these rumours are rehashed over and over. This weeks rehash, is that the iTunes store will start selling songs without DRM.
For those unfamiliar with DRM, it’s basically a way for record companies to feel good about selling you music in a medium that is so easy to pirate. DRM can be everything from a lockdown on your listening or “burn-to-cd” rights, or just tags that attach your username or userID to the song. The tags will let the record companies know who made the track available to other people. The problem with DRM, is that no one trusts it and therefore buying music with it attached is not something a lot of people want to do. Also, it targets the wrong people: the ones actually buying the music in the first place.
My own opinion swings somewhere between not having any at all, and having the ownership tags. A lot of people don’t even like the idea of the tags, but I think it’s a good thing for consumers. I’m from a time when you bought a physical CD or, if you’re old enough like me, tapes and records. But really, when you plunked down your 15 dollars for some music, you got something physical, something that was real. You got tangible ownership out of the transaction. By having a tag attached to the song you purchased, it’s like you get a piece of music that’s straight up yours. Now this does not prevent you from distributing the song to your friends, but if you do widespread pirating (which is wrong unless you have explicit permission of the artist anyways), then you might be upset about being identified. Honestly though, it’s not hard to circumvent such “security”. All you need to do is burn the song onto a CD and then rip it off the disc again.
Interestingly, ID tags might be used in future music distribution system for good. Say you pass along a track you like to your friend. That friend likes the track and decides that she wants to support the artist and purchase it. If your ID is tagged in some service, then you might make a commission. This is similar to the GrooveShark model. I wonder if they ever secured the recording rights along with their already negotiated publishing licenses. Has anyone been following them?
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