DRM is dead
The music industry is throwing in the towel on DRM. The copy-control technology, meant to help stop piracy of digital content, has met stiff resistance from music distributors and consumers alike. Advocacy groups have long argued that DRM infringes on consumers’ fair-use rights and music distributors have said it has had little effect on piracy.
So it was a victory for consumers last week when Sony BMG agreed to sell DRM-free digital music downloads via Amazon.com, becoming the last of the big four labels to agree to do so. Consumers will be able to download unprotected music and transfer those files to as many devices as they want. Analysts have said the deal signals the death of DRM.
Though DRM’s demise is good news for consumers, it does little to help the music industry address the serious challenges it faces. The big record labels have to adapt to the radical changes sweeping the industry or perish. They know this. But finding solutions is not easy, especially given that a significant percentage of normally law-abiding consumers don’t think twice about downloading music — not to mention movies and television shows — using online file-sharing services such as BitTorrent. Sharing media has almost become a cultural norm.
Convincing consumers not to share or download music illegally is proving immensely difficult. DRM, meant to help address the problem, did more damage than good: it further tarnished the industry’s already poor image. In the minds of many consumers, the big record labels are rapacious monsters desperately clinging to a dying business model. The Recording Industry Association of America has become an object of derision for suing tens of thousands of people it suspected of downloading music illegally, among them children.
So far, the industry has been making a hash of convincing consumers why they ought to pay for music. When songs are wrapped in DRM, law-abiding consumers are treated like suspected criminals who can’t be trusted with the music they have purchased. And the people who are stealing music from file-sharing sites get their music without any digital restrictions attached. That doesn’t add up.
Foisting DRM on consumers was not an auspicious move by record companies fighting for their very survival. Belatedly, they appear to have recognised this. The industry can still save itself. But what it needs to do is empower consumers, not restrict them. What it must do is make it easy and convenient to purchase music cheaply through a range of digital channels — it needs to be as easy to download music legitimately as it is to fire up a BitTorrent client. If you hear a tune on the radio you like, you ought to be able to buy it and download it immediately to your cellphone. Similarly, Apple’s market-leading iTunes Store ought to be available worldwide, and not be restricted to a few countries as it is now at the insistence of the record labels.
By treating consumers with respect, the big labels have a chance of surviving. They also need to explore new business models, of course. Consumers have come to expect most things online to be free. That said, there is money to be made from online music sales — after all, Apple has sold more than 3bn songs through the iTunes Store. Some consumers, though by no means all, are prepared to pay for music in order to support the artists who create it. For the others, an option being tested by a few companies is to provide music free in exchange for consumers agreeing first to listen to a commercial message.
First published as the column Technology & You in the Financial Mail
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