Sony BMG is backing off from DRM for music: Hint, hint, e-book publishers
“Sony BMG, a joint venture of Sony and Bertelsmann, will make at least part of its collection available without so-called digital rights management, or DRM, software some time in the first quarter, according to people familiar with the matter.” – BusinessWeek.
The TeleRead take: Sony BMG did a limited test of DRMless music and got good results. When will large e-book publishers do the same? Actually an exec at one one publishing giant has told me his firm has quietly been experimenting without DRM in certain cases. Let’s see more of this. A few years back, Random House, not the just-mentioned firm, try releasing e-books without DRM. I have yet to know what the results were. My guess is that they were favorable, or we would have heard negative news.
Meanwhile here’s a gem in the BW story that should be mandatory reading for publishing executives who’d feel comfortable with Amazon in charge of the global e-book industry:
“Worse for the labels, the restrictions ultimately resulted in less control over the paid download industry. Because DRM tended to tie consumers to the store most compatible with their music device, the record labels unwittingly gave much of the power over music distribution to Apple, the manufacturer of the most popular digital music player, the iPod.
Music industry executives say Apple has not wielded that power lightly. With control of an estimated 80% of the market for legally downloaded music, Apple pushed its preferred price of 99ยข per song over the opposition of several labels (BusinessWeek.com, 9/25/05), which preferred variable pricing that would allow some artists to sell at a premium.”
If nothing else, remember that DRM reduces the value of music, books and everything else it taints—thus reducing content providers’ bargaining power in general, whether with Apple or consumers.
(Via Gizmodo and DearAuthor.)
Leave a Reply