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EMI sale unlikely to affect DRM-free downloads

Dela @ May 25, 2007 22:59 | 3 comments

The proposed sale of EMI to Terra Firma in a deal worth over $4 billion is unlikely to affect EMI's deal with Apple Inc.'s iTunes to sell music downloads without Digital Rights Management (DRM). Both companies announced last month that EMI's catalog would be available on iTunes without any DRM included and with a higher bitrate for 30c more than the standard 99c price per track.

Neither of the companies have commented yet on how the sale would affect DRM-free downloads, but one industry analyst expects the DRM-less tracks to be available on schedule. "EMI made its decision to side-step DRM in part to demonstrate its forward-thinking strategy, so potential purchasers would see greater value in the company," said Aram Sinnreich, founder and managing partner of Radar Research, a Los Angeles media consulting firm.

Sinnreich added: "They can't renege on the deals very easily without the value of the company plummeting." Many believe that EMI's decision to drop DRM is good for the growing market for music downloads and for consumers. It is unknown, however, if the new owners would keep EMI's current strategies and vision for the future of the industry.

While EMI made the decision to offer its entire catalog without DRM, other record companies fail to share the vision. Warner Music Group CEO Edgar Bronfman Jr is an advocate for the continued use of DRM, and strongly disagreed with Steve Jobs' open letter to record labels urging that DRM be dropped completely. "The notion that music does not deserve the same protection as software, film, video games or other intellectual property, simply because there is an unprotected legacy product in the physical world, is completely without logic or merit," he said at the time.

Source:

ComputerWorld.com

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