Puretracks dishes up mp3s
p2pnet.net news:- “Puretracks, a major Canadian online music seller, has just launched DRM-free music for some of its music titles,” blogs Canadian Net expert Michael Geist, going on:
“While the major label music remains locked behind Windows-based DRM, Puretracks is offering 50,000 titles in clean MP3 format.”
And, “Canadian download store Puretracks is turning up the volume on the free-the-music movement by selling songs online without copy protection,” enthuses the Financial Post.
“Toronto-based Puretracks Inc. yesterday announced it was selling MP3 files from independent labels, including Nettwerk Music Group, Independent Online Distribution Alliance and England’s Beggar’s Banquet, without digital rights management (DRM), or the technology that restricts how a song can be copied and transferred.”
It’s a start.
But ‘corporate’ artists such as Nelly Furtado, Corinne Bailey Rae, Fallout Boy, and so on, are still locked up tight with WMA (Windows Media Audio) DRM (Digital Restrictions Management) consumer control, and as things stand, Puretracks WMA outnumbers Puretracks mp3. By far.
The company is demanding $C1.19 (a touch more than the usual $US1 rip-off on other corporate sites) for a single DRM’d WMA track from Furtado, et al, and famous Nettwerk Music artists such as Sarah McLachlan and Bare Naked Ladies go from $C.80 to $1 per download.
That’s way too much, either way. But neither Puretracks nor anyone else can expect to bring the rates for Big 4 Organized Music cartel tunes down to a reasonable level until Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG come to their senses and severely reduce their exorbitant wholesale rates which, the last we heard, were still at between $US.60 and close to $US.90.
IOHO, no one should be looking for more than 40 cents, absolute max, for any individual track from any artist, Big 4 or otherwise.
Meanwhile, “why is Puretracks still blocking Mac users?” – wonder Geist. “I tried this morning to access the site and was completely blocked using Firefox and partially blocked with Safari. Presumably offering clean MP3 should allow the service to sell to anyone.
“Second, the move to clean MP3s brings to mind my colleague Jeremy deBeer’s posting last November in which he noted that the online music tariff before the Copyright Board appears to include a mandatory DRM provision. Such a provision is obviously incompatible with the Puretracks DRM-free service.”
Also See:
Michael Geist – Puretracks Launches DRM-Free Music, February 21, 2007
Financial Post – Puretracks takes lead in rights fight, February 22, 2007
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