Abstract
Features:
- How We Got Here
- Case Study: Indie Labels and eMusic
- Value Chain Analysis
- Requirements Capture: DRM
- Implications: DRM-free
- New Paradigm: DRM vs. DMM
Some senior executives working in major record labels think that DRM has been
a "disaster," a major change of heart from a few years ago.
Such is the concern that they are examining the feasibility of licensing their
music for sale without DRM. But of course, many other label executives are
sticking to their guns and continue to believe that ' DRMed' music is the only
way forward.
Meanwhile, over the last few years nearly 10,000 indie labels have licensed
their music to eMusic for sale without DRM. This online music store has done a
fine job building a brand around DRM-free indie music and is now the second
largest online music store in the U.S. and Europe, currently selling over 5
million downloads per month.
It is clear that the winds of change are blowing across the DRM landscape and
the pro-DRM consensus shared by the major record labels a few years ago is now
showing the first signs of cracking.
This report analyses whether DRM might a broken technology, perhaps at a
conceptual level, in terms of its implementation or both.
The report first provides a detailed explanation of the process used by the
industry to define the requirements for DRM, which has resulted in a range of
non-interoperable technologies that impose visible usage restrictions on
consumers.
The report then looks at the implications for online music retailers and
device brands - including Apple - if the industry migrated to a new regime
where music was supplied without DRM. The report explains that this strategy
might have an unexpected outcome.
Finally, the report asks whether DRM needs to be repurposed: perhaps the
technology' s first application - rights management - needs to give way to
its true role as the enabler of a digital media ecosystem.
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