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Internet EMI Trying Out DRM-free Music Files
Michael Hoffman (Blog) - December 9, 2006 12:49 AM

23 comment(s) - last by Locutus465.. on Dec 11 at 10:05 PM

EMI is the latest record label to offer users music files without DRM

In a move aimed at pleasing users, EMI Music has announced that it is offering music tracks through the Yahoo! Music service with no restrictive digital rights management (DRM) technology. EMI is offering tracks from Norah Jones and Relient K for $0.99 through Yahoo! Music.

Several other record companies have also tested out the market for DRM-free music files. Sony released a Jessica Simpson song over the summer with no DRM, and Disney offered Jesse McCartney's latest album with no restrictions. Independent record labels, however, have been much faster to adapt to offering content with no playback restrictions.

Music companies are trying to test out the waters to see if there is a high enough demand for music files that are able to be played on any digital music player on the market. In fact, some officials have gone as far as to claim that record labels should all attempt to offer DRM-free content to users.

While any drastic notions of all songs being DRM-free is still a longshot, progress is being made. "They're still looking at it as an experiment by the labels have come a long way in terms of wanting to see how this works for them," said Carrie Davis, a Yahoo spokesman.

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My experience with DRM music

By SunAngel on 12/10/2006 12:25:33 AM , Rating: 2

Sure DRM is unacceptable, but there are ways to get around it. My computer has digital optical in and out and my Sony MiniDisc Recorder has digital optical in and out. I changed my sound properties to digital out and send the audio out to the MiniDisc player. Once all the tracks are on the MiniDisc, I send them back into the computer through Nero Mix. Granted, it takes 2X the track/album time, but my music is DRM-less. I then convert to WMA and sync up with my notebook and pda smartphone. I figure while I'm listening to the song I might as just output it to the MiniDisc. I don't really see it as a loss of time to go through this whole process, but more of an inconvenience to have to do so. But hey, these are the current rules and this was the only way, I saw, to keep everything digital (besides installing a hack on my computer, which I won't do).

RE: My experience with DRM music

By Gooberslot on 12/10/2006 7:10:25 PM , Rating: 2

Don't minidiscs use lossy compression? If so, your taking a compressed file, re-compressing it when you record it to the minidisc then re-compressing it again when you record it in WMA format. Wow, I don't see how you can stand that level of quality loss.

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RE: My experience with DRM music

By mindless1 on 12/11/2006 4:47:24 AM , Rating: 4

I don't think you understand. As a prospective paying customer, I don't want to find a way around using what I pay for. Leave that kind of nonsense to the kiddie crackers, I don't have time to fool around with it, just download and have it work on all devices or forget it.

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"If they're going to pirate somebody, we want it to be us rather than somebody else." -- Microsoft Business Group President Jeff Raikes