, 1 min read
Amazon.com to Launch DRM-Free MP3 Music
This was unavoidable. Amazon.com will sell DRM-Free MP3 Music. If Amazon.com is good at one thing, that’s selling stuff over the Web. They are the best at it. They have brand recognition. They have excellent technology and solid engineering. They are an innovative, hard-to-catch company. Now? They go DRM-free. This means that you download the MP3 and you just copy and paste it wherever you want it. No messing around with copy protection.
Apple has been doing ok with iTunes despite their DRM approach which I find repulsive, but their business is not selling music. So far, as far as I know, nobody has managed to sell music for a profit, with or without DRM. If anyone can do it, it is Amazon.com. And if they pull it out without DRM, this will be a major setback for DRM initiatives. Why would a customer ever accept DRM when he doesn’t have to?