Warner goes DRM-free in Europe
p2pnet news | Music:- This is a bit like when the Berlin Wall came down.
One day it was there, the huge, seemingly insurmountable barrier between East and West Germany, as it was then, and the next, it was gone forever.
Now the phony DRM barrier erected by Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG in a fruitless effort to force their customers to do adhere to artificial restrictions on ‘product’ is collapsing.
And one day, the Big 4 will have to go the rest of the way, fully opening their catalogues and reducing their currently extortionate wholesale prices so competition instead of domination becomes the rule for online music sales and distribution.
They’ll also have to stop trying to sue their own customers into buying ‘product,’ of course.
In the manner of vested interests throughout time, the labels have done everything in their power to hold back the future. But eventually, they’ll be forced to acknowledge they owe allegiance to their customers, and not the other way around.
Sony BMG recently started selling semi-DRM-free music downloads in North America through Platinum MusicPass and now Warner Music International, a division of Warner Music Group, says its catalogue will be available to 7digital.com customers in the UK, Ireland, Spain, France and Germany.
"The site is the first major European download store to offer Warner’s tracks in the DRM-free MP3 format," says Reuters.
7digital is already peddling EMI MP3s, "and aims to sign more labels soon".
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Also See:
semi-DRM-free music – Sony BMG dumps DRM — kinda, January 4, 2008
Reuters – Warner signs 7digital MP3 deal in Europe, March 3, 2008
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