DRM: Who Wants What?
Forbe's Louis Hau has a good, comprehensive article titled "Why Online Music Will Stay Locked Up" on the majors' stances on DRM and the desires of the leading music download stores. It can be used as a DRM scorecard to keep track of who wants what.
Major Music Groups
Warner Music Group: For. "No intellectual property business is going to cross the digital divide without figuring out how to protect its content and to ensure that transactions are associated with the acquisition of content. The music industry simply has to solve the content security problem or risk the obsolescence of its business model." -- Michael Nash, senior vice president of digital strategy and business development, speaking at NARM.
Sony BMG: For. "We don’t want the whole world to be a college dorm. Because that’s what a no-DRM world looks like--it’s a world in which all product can just be cloned without limitation." -- Thomas Hesse, Sony BMG president of global digital business and U.S. sales, speaking at NARM.
Universal Music Group: Undecided. Hau wrote that UMG is thinking about dropping restrictions. "...if further tests prove that this provides us with a net positive sales result, by which I mean sales increase more than piracy, then we will try to work out a reasonable solution." -- Amanda Marks, UMG executive vice president and general manager of digital distribution.
EMI: Has already decided to drop DRM, though it will sell DRM tracks at the (lower) original price.
Stores and Services
Napster: All or nothing. Napster wants to sell DRM-free downloads, but only if it can sell all music without DRM. "We don’t want to confuse customers,’’ said Napster's Chris Gorog. “It’s all or nothing. We’re not going to do it incrementally."
Rhapsody: Wants to minimize confusion. Kevin Nakao, RealNetworks’ vice president of music and mobile services: "Can you create the consumer experience and merchandising experience that’s not confusing or does more harm than good? We think we can do that because we think the best way to sell music is in the context that they’re listening to it."
Yahoo! Music: Reduce clutter. Rather than sell both DRM and DRM-free tracks as iTunes plans to do, Yahoo! may stop selling a restricted version of a track as soon as it can sell the DRM-free version.
Music Groups