The beginning of the end for DRM
Amazon's announcement of having a DRM-Free MP3 Music site is good news. They aren't the first to do it. emusic has been doing it for years. Apple will be doing it.
emusic is too niche, and Apple is too proprietary. But Amazon presenting this MP3 based store has the power and scale to make this work in a mass market - and make the music industry finally re-think the business models around music distribution.
In ten years, we will all look back and laugh that we tried to protect digital media with DRM.
Yes, we will see more product placements in movies, and we will see more ads in videogames, and music, well, music will become the promotional device for a band to make money on other things. Artists will start to produce more music and release it more frequently.
Will people still buy media? Yes, they will if it's easy and cheap enough to get at the very instant someone wants it.
Will music make it's way around to people who didn't pay for it? Sure. But let's face it - it does that now. Any college kid these days who wants a CD but doesn't want to pay for it can tell you where they can get it in 10 minutes. Is there a way to monetize that scale? There must be.
The music industry knows its current business model's days are numbered - and DRM-free stores will force their hand in figuring out the new model.
So here's to putting DRM in the history books.
