Music Execs Think DRM Slows the Marketplace 224
MacGod writes "From BBC News comes a story about a Jupiter Research survey conducted before Steve Jobs's anti-DRM essay, indicating that most music industry execs see DRM-free music as a way to expand sales on digital tracks. The survey covered large and small record labels, rights bodies, digital stores, and technology providers. To summarize: 54% of music execs think that current DRM is too restrictive and 62% think selling unencumbered music would be a way to boost sales. Even limiting the survey to the record labels themselves, 48% believe this. Yet, many also believe it's not going to happen without significant governmental intervention — even though most insiders think DRM is harmful, the labels are keen to stick with it. Is this yet another sign of the typical media industry 'head in the sand, refuse to change' approach, or might we be seeing the early stages or some actual change?"
Re:Told Ya (Score:5, Informative)
I spent 8 years in the video game industry and eventually wound up as one of two guys in the studio responsible for Copy Protection. I got the dubious honor of dealing with the tools to make sure all our CDs had our chosen form of copy protection "working".
At no point did I think the copy protection was worth the time and money we spent on it. The members of management I talked to about it weren't convinced that it was worth it either. But there was just enough anecdotal "evidence" of pirates completely eviscerating sales of games that shipped without copy protection that management was terrified to try and ship without it.
Next time you hear the **AA's going on about how piracy is killing them, realize that they may be targetting those who make decisions about including DRM just as much, or possibly more, than they're targetting the lawmakers or joe public.
Re:Told Ya (Score:3, Informative)
Re:No airtime for inde. (Score:3, Informative)
Conventional airtime is all tied up in payola and Clear Chanel mandated playlists. A New York station plays the exact playlist as an LA station.
The smaller bands have to do an end run past the entrenched media cartel. The Internet is the new media. Find new bands on MySpace and YouTube, not the local radio station.
Re:DRM is not piracy prevention. (Score:4, Informative)
If that's so, then why is it that most DRM systems allow format-shifting to DRM-free formats?
Since their business model historically has derived a lot of revenue from the repurchasing of music in new formats (45s, 8-tracks, LPs, cassette tape, CD), they want to stop this
Such shifts are too rare to be protected at great expense. The music industry does not live and die based on whether people purchase the same music every few decades -- it lives on lots of people buying different music every year. Consider that the largest group of music consumers today have probably never owned anything but CDs.
Re:Apple is the problem, not the execs (Score:2, Informative)
a) the issue you read about on
b) both the iTunes Store and iTunes are fully legal in Norway.
So far, only the Norwegian consumer organization has raised the issue of lock-in for songs bought on the iTunes Store. No law has been passed, no ban is in place etc.
FWIW, that very same consumer organization has publicly stated that it is of the opinion that as long as allofmp3.com is legal in Russia, it is legal in Norway.
Re:DRM is not piracy prevention. (Score:3, Informative)