Sony Announces DRM-Free Music at Amazon 293
sehlat brings us a New York Times report that Sony has agreed to start selling DRM-free music from Amazon's MP3 store. This comes days after Sony revealed plans for physical MusicPass cards that would allow DRM-free access to a small portion of Sony's library. Now that all four major record labels are on board with Amazon, some are expecting Apple to make moves away from DRM as well. From the NYTimes:
"Sony's partnership with Amazon.com also underscores the music industry's gathering effort to nurture an online rival to Apple, which has sold more than three billion songs through its iTunes store. Most music purchased on iTunes can be played only on Apple devices, and Apple insists on selling all single tracks for 99 cents. Amazon, which sells tracks for anywhere from 89 cents to over a dollar, offers the pricing variability the labels want."
Re:Apple already did with EMI - They were first! (Score:5, Interesting)
Comment removed (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Free market (Score:3, Interesting)
I'll continue to download the albums, listen to them and then either buy the CD (if I liked the album) or delete what I downloaded (if I didn't).
Re:Free market (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Free market (Score:1, Interesting)
To illustrate, use the 24-hour rule and find a copy of a classical music file or anything else you know has been produced well; let's take Holst's "Jupiter" as an example. Opening this up in Audacity shows how music should be recorded - way below the +1/-1 peak level, but rising every so often to deliver a punchy sound, and with a difference between quiet and loud parts. Then open a mainstream pop record. It's probably stretched to the limit, with peaks being chopped off, all the same volume - you get the idea. Musical abuse, basically. That's not saying there aren't exceptions, but I'd say even one record on the market with its dynamic range squeezed down to tiny proportions is too many. And there's far more than one record currently committing these "crimes".
Don't forget to delete the files after 24 hours of use though. I am not responsible if the hired goons come round and break down the door etc.
First bring back dynamic range. Then bring in FLAC. Because your choice of codec matters little if they ruined the studio copy in the first place. Then we'll talk.
Re:Apple already did with EMI - They were first! (Score:1, Interesting)
No matter how great people think AAC is, the iTunes Store's 128kbps CBR is low to begin with. Losing any more audio quality is a shitty option, especially if you need to use high bitrate re-compression to minimize the additional loss in audio quality.
Apple and the music labels allowed this DRM "workaround" because it's a shitty option. It's the modern equivalent of pressing the tape recorder next to the radio's speaker.
Re: Rant about State of the Industry (Score:3, Interesting)
What you're describing is a market opportunity for labor. As I understand your post, once the majority of small labels are signed, you'll be content. This becomes a When-Not-If scenario. My projection is three years if a dedicated negotiating force buckles down with no more white noise interference.
Then there will always be the bleeding edge bands who formed last week, and it will be the thing to do to get them signed as a favor, in return for comped cd's *for services performed*.
Economist Article (Score:5, Interesting)
Quote:
IN 2006 EMI, the world's fourth-biggest recorded-music company, invited some teenagers into its headquarters in London to talk to its top managers about their listening habits. At the end of the session the EMI bosses thanked them for their comments and told them to help themselves to a big pile of CDs sitting on a table. But none of the teens took any of the CDs, even though they were free. "That was the moment we realised the game was completely up," says a person who was there.
Re:Free market (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Free market (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm not sure if you are joking or not, but in all seriousness, I'd rather have the stereo that plays mp3s from data CDs then an external unit like a Zune or Ipod.
In fact the various iPod docking stations out there would drive me absolutely nuts if I had one in my car. Who the hell was the moron that came up with the idea of putting a bright blue led on a device used in automobiles that are presumably driven at night? Besides white, is there a worse possible color choice for this application? Couldn't they have used red leds?
Hell, it's not just the iPod docking station either. Why the hell do most bluetooth headsets flash blue leds when turned on? Red is a hellva lot less distracting in a dark environment. The worst part is that most of the headsets on the market already have red leds -- they've just chosen to assign them to something else and flash the blue one for 'power on'. At least a handful of them let you disable this "feature", of course then you have no idea if the thing is turned on or not....
Re:It also took Apple (Score:3, Interesting)
Exactly. This is why they are abandoning DRM. They realized that the only successful DRM gave Apple the power to force them into a particular pricing model. They'd rather give up on DRM than see that happen.
S3 mp3 storage (Score:3, Interesting)
Now you have a backup of all your purchased music at no charge, which you can download at any time at standard S3 download rates. And, of course, you can feel free to use that S3 account for other purposes if you like. But there's no monthly fee for storing the mp3s since Amazon only needs to keep a single copy of each song for all users.