Puretracks Music Store Drops DRM

khendron writes "The Canadian online music store Puretracks (a store I have generally avoided because of their Microsoft-specific solutions) has announced that it will immediately start selling part of its catalog as DRM-free MP3 files. The site's unprotected catalog, which includes artists such as The Barenaked Ladies and Sarah McLachlan, will initially feature only 50,000 of its 1.3 million tracks, but their number will grow weekly. The Globe and Mail says the move will likely profit Puretracks because its DRM-free-music will be playable on iPods. It quotes one industry watcher saying 'We're seeing the death of DRM.'" Essentially Puretracks is relaxing the major-label mandated DRM rules that it had initially applied to all labels, even the indies that wanted no part of DRM.

Yes, Apple "could do this"...

...as the from the apple-could-do-this dept. statement opines, but only for the artists and/or labels with direct legal standing to make such a request with Apple. Hint: it's not anywhere near the number people think it is. Even some artists who sell or provide DRM-free music via other channels may not actually have such a (legal) capability with Apple, for example, because their label's contract with Apple (or other stipulations) doesn't currently allow it.

And while we're at it, let's fix the title of this submission:

Puretracks drops DRM from less than 4% of its tracks; even less when you consider well known commercial artists on major labels; changes format and delivery mechanism for such songs

Let's face it: like it or not, that's important.

I do agree that Apple should aggressively work toward this, and they should absolutely drop the "all-or-nothing" mentality with DRM on the iTunes store, because dropping all DRM at once won't work. They definitely need to start somewhere, even if it's with relatively unknown artists and/or labels. Consider, too, that some of Apple's existing contracts may have stipulations that all other music sold on the same store or via the same mechanisms have the same protections.

The article notes:

Essentially Puretracks is relaxing the major-label mandated DRM rules that it had initially applied to all labels, even the indies that wanted no part of DRM.

What if Apple isn't currently in a legal, technical, business, and/or support position to do that? What if it is, in fact, planning to do just that, but can't move quite as quickly as people seem to think it should be able to. This isn't a "2-3 day" operation as some people think it should be. It may be months before any fruits of this are seen on the iTunes Store.

Consider further that Apple may not want to sell, e.g., MP3 format specifically, for a variety of reasons. If a label (like EMI, which is talking to everyone BUT Apple about its possible no-DRM experiment - perhaps some ulterior motives of their own?), specifically wants "unprotected MP3", what if Apple's format of choice is "unprotected AAC"? Should Apple start selling multiple formats as well as multiple protection levels? How much of the years-proven consistency of operation and ease of use should Apple sacrifice on the iTunes Store?

There are a lot of unknowns here that don't automatically mean that Apple "doesn't really want to drop DRM."[1] Yes, actions speak louder than words, but Jobs' landmark statement on DRM, concisely shredding any arguments in favor of DRM, is, in fact, a pretty big action in itself. But Apple has a lot invested in the iTunes Store ecosystem, and they're not going to make rash decisions, screw things up, break support models, confuse customers, or do anything that would cause them to lose one or more large commercial content providers.

So while other fringe and marginally known stores may be able to make moves in this direction, it's a delicate situation for Apple. Hopefully Jobs' strong words, which have already caused a firestorm of circling wagons among some pro-DRM entities, and other stores with the luxury of being able to move more quickly into experimental areas, will push the balance toward "no-DRM". Regardless of what the bloggers and pundits think, who instantly came out with all of these "Apple doesn't really want to get rid of DRM" arguments believing this was a carefully crafted PR play, Jobs' DRM statement is the strongest stance from anyone at such a high level in music and media, and that's exactly what it will take to move the industry forward.

[1] Also, Apple doesn't use "DRM" or trusted computing/TPM on Mac OS X, in any way [osxbook.com]. The restriction is a manifestly a licensing one, and any technical difficulties of running Mac OS X on non-Apple hardware are incidental (even if intended to make it non-trivial).

Re:Time to put your money where your mouth is

Otherwise you will be condsidered a hypocrit and ignored.

EMusic [emusic.com] has been around for years. Everything on the site is MP3.

They don't seem to be having any business difficulties. And for the record, I've been a subscriber for years.

Re:Time to put your money where your mouth is

First of all, the CEO of eMusic during the Napster Hearings was Gene Hoffman, and yes, he did agree with the court ordered injuction against Napster. [wired.com] Before he made that statement, he asked Napster to remove eMusic files from their index. He also asked that users who shared the songs be unbanned from Napster. Frankly, if I were selling unprotected music, I wouldn't call it "short-sighted" to ask another company not to let people give it away.

But eMusic wasn't just his company. Hoffman cofounded the company with Bob Kohn [wikipedia.org]. Before that, both of them served on the board for Pretty Good Privacy [wikipedia.org]. I know. Total "asshats".

Either way, the current CEO [emusic.com] is David Pakman who has been speaking out against DRM [typepad.com] since long before Steve Jobs did.

While I agree with boycotting companies for their beliefs and behavior (I don't buy major label music or anything Sony), I have to call bullshit in this case. eMusic provides distribution for many small record labels in a way that lets their users play the music whenever, and on whatever digital music player they want. They are priced fairly (I pay ~ $.18 a song). They have a good business model, and they're legal.

I'm sure it is possible to rationalize not paying for music no matter how it is provided to you. And if the option to obtain it for free exists, you certainly can take advantage of it. But criticizing a good company in a public forum based on outdated information to justify your refusal to pay for music only makes you look like an asshat.

Re:Time to put your money where your mouth is

Why on earth should I buy from Puretracks when I already buy from other sites that offer DRM-free downloads (emusic and dgmlive mostly) and physical CD's for things not available DRM-free.

That makes me a hypocrite because I am not buying from one specific store? Do I have to buy milk at every store in town to prove I believe in a free market?

They are not the first: Emusic was first to sell (mostly) indy music in a large-scale DRM-free way.

Re:Time to put your money where your mouth is

Ah, another enlightened analogy between real property and intellectual property.

Re:Time to put your money where your mouth is

While I agree with most of your post, I have to nitpick on one point :

"The point of copyright is that the creators of intellectual property should be the ones who decide how their work is distributed."

This statement actually hurt me to read. The point of copyright is not to control the distribution of media, the point of copyright is to compensate the producer for their work - thus giving a monetary reason for them to continue producing something we as a society find beneficial. The arts aren't required for human life like food and water is, however, as a society we have created things like copyright to help promote something that we find valuable.

This debate should not be about if copying for free is right or wrong, it should be about compensating the artist for their hard work. Piracy doesn't do that, but honestly the majority of labels don't much either... it's obviously time we rethought our strategy altogether.

Re:Time to put your money where your mouth is

No no no. You mean "Warner Executive".

WE: Son why did you copy all these songs we didn't buy?
Son: I wanted them dad.
WE: Well son, you need to apologize and get rid of them and we'll call things square even tho we are suing dead people, people that don't own computers, and computer novices every day. It's an important lesson son- the rules don't apply to you because your in a "better" class of people.
Son: Ah dad, I get it! (Goes off to secretly download songs but now nows to do it more discretely).

Re:Time to put your money where your mouth is

Judge: The Ferrari look and design is still property of Ferrari, charges are not dismissed.

What "charges"? Theft? Nothing was stolen. Trademark? If the guy made it himself and didn't sell it, no. So what?

Just say no to car analogies.

Re:Time to put your money where your mouth is

there are a lot of other online stores that not only sell non-drm, music they also provide oggs, flacs, ability to re-download...

actually, one of them - magnatune - was recently integrated in amarok.
after that, there have been several interested parties in such integration, all of them providing unencumbered tracks in free formats.
an amarok developer is working on a generic music store interface, so it should be even easier to purchase such music and increase music available.
of course, this unified interface is still some time away, but until that everybody can go to magnatune or any other shop that is not only selling non-drm stuff, but also providing it in open an high-quality formats :)

is not available for Mac OS.

...and not only that, available only to canucs? Seems to limit who can claim to be honoring a promise to support non-DRM'ed content. Yep, this is really going to make a splash in the music world.

What's the point, other than some site smaller than Balmer's nuts trying to gain more exposure...?

Setting up a strawman

I wonder if this is just a variation on a theme we've seen before:

1. Drop DRM on a bunch of music that nobody cares about
2. Collect sales figures for 6 months
3. Issue a report saying that sales did not increase for non-DRM'd music - "See, removing DRM doesn't make people want to buy more music!"

This old dog may actually now try something new

I was a very early adopter of MP3s. I converted much of my collection in the mid to late 90s when conversion took place at 0.5x real time on standard home PC. That said, I have never bought one track online. Why? DRM. Funny thing is, I hardly buy CDs anymore either.

DRM-free music may actually motivate me to get excited about buying music again. It may also, however, hasten the death of CD-based commercial music sales. Ability to rip from a CD and yield DRM-free content seems to be one of the few remaining advantages of this format. Why the heck would I drop $14.99 for a CD now if I can just grab the one or two tracks that I like for a fraction of that price? Sure, I may not discover deep tracks that do not enjoy radio play, but this still does sound like a major advantage to me. How many of us have CDs that seem like a collection of marginal tracks surrounding the one or two that we actually like?

Don't believe the hype

Boing Boing [boingboing.net] debunks this story. In brief: stay the hell away.

Re:Don't believe the hype

And that one redirects me to "only available in Canada" [puretracks.com].

Re:Don't believe the hype

Unfortunately the DRM-free tracks are only available in Canada. If you try to see them from a US IP address you get a page saying those albums are only available to Canadian residents.

Not True

This article is completely wrong. This store actually uses standard Windows PlaysForSure DRM on all it's tracks. The friggin' PlaysForSure logo is on their homepage. http://www.puretracks.com/ [puretracks.com]

Re:Not True

As said earlier by myself and a few others, you can only buy DRM-free tracks if you live in Canada, or at the very least if you are not coming from a US IP address.

There's nothing to see here... Move along....

They are NOT making their entire offering DRM free. If they did, then I would care. This is simply being done to make them look like "leaders" in this industry.

Re:There's nothing to see here... Move along....

The easiest way to become a leader is to find out which way the crowd is going and jump in front.

Not so fast

It looks like some users over at BoingBoing have already debunked this one Link [boingboing.net]. According to them, all the track on the site, including the supposedly "DRM Free" are Windows crippled WMA.

Either they aren't doing this "immediately" or someone screwed up. I can't find a single BNL song that is available in anything other than WMA from Puretracks.

Re:Not so fast

All tracks on the US site.

If you go to the Canadian site and you're not in Canada it moves you on to the US site.

So we need someone in Canada to verify the story.

Re:Not so fast

Two clicks is too much to expect from the average Slashdot bandwagoner, I guess.

I followed your link, and got this error page [puretracks.com].

I suppose it might be the case that this system for auto-redirecting all Mac users to an error page dates from the time when all their songs were DRMed, and hasn't been updated. But it certainly doesn't convey the impression that they've changed anything.

I am in Canada, btw.

No DRM iPods? etc.

Now this seems like a step in the right direction.

I was given an iPod shuffle at a company party last year, and am probably in the minority because I haven't gone hog wild downloading my favorite music from iTunes -- specifically because of the DRM restrictions. Now then, let's say that eventually Puretracks offers me those same tunes without DRM, and I can put them on my iPod for when I am out walking/jogging/etc., or convert the songs I paid for into one copy of a CD that I can play in my PC at work, or at home, etc. On my WinXX system or my Linux system or my car stereo. Let's even say that I put together my greatest hits anthology on CDs that I paid for the tracks for, but get tired of them and give my collection to my kid, or sell it at a yard sale, and then I delete all my copies. Still legal, still one paid for copy -- vs. DRM restricted usage.

Guess who gets my money?

DRM is a stopgap against obsalesence

DRM is the 'media industry' trying to hold on to the idea that information is a finite resource, that you buy.

It's just not true any more. You can still go and buy a CD with the lastest stuff on it, but ... well, MP3s are infinitely replicatable at minimal cost to the distributor.

DRM is giving a locked box and the keys to it. You can make the key and box as complicated as you like (and lets face it, they probably have) and it's _still_ not going to work, as long as I can point a camera at my display screen, or sit a mic next to my loudspeaker.

iPOD (And their ilk) have demonstrated that there _is_ a market for easily accessible music, with a pricetag. What the 'media thugs' _should_ be doing is concentrating on implementing a new model for distribution of media, rather than trying to enforce the unenforcible. I'd be prepared to bet they'd get a _lot_ more sales if 'everything' was distributed as a function of bandwith needed to transfer + a small license fee. Price per unit down, but with negligable manufacturing and shipping costs, free publicity and 'easy access' I'd be of the opinion that it'd pay for itself.

Of course, it'd be nigh on impossible to turn back the tide once the floodgates open, so they probably never will.

I call BS.

http://www.puretracks.com/content/viewer_page.aspx ?cid=UserDetection_MacOSNotAllowed [puretracks.com]

Microsoft-specific solutions?

(a store I have generally avoided because of their Microsoft-specific solutions)

Do you mean Microsoft-specific DRM solutions? Because if you're avoiding them simply because they've chosen to build their website/infrastructure with ASP and .NET, you've gone off the deep end with your Microsoft-hating.

My wife tried puretracks.

When I bought my wife her Sony Network Walkman [sony.co.uk] she decided to try Puretracks so that she could get digital music legally. After a week and the realization that "we won't let you copy the songs *you bought* off your computer", she dropped them like a hot rock.

"I'd rather get my music illegally, and have them work on my MP3 player," she said.

From The F'in Web Site

Is this what's meant by "immediately" ???

FTFWS:

http://www.puretracks.com/res/img/macsplash.gif [puretracks.com]

Ah, you're on a Mac. Here's the thing about that.

Thanks for visiting.

Our current music sotre uses Windows Media technology to play our music files. Unfortunately that means our songs are incompatible with your operating system. Furthermore, Aple's iTunes FairPlay system is currently not available to us for use with iPods.

We'd love to offer our music to Mac users, and we are currently working to offer content in new formats.

Ah, comme ça vous êtes sur Mac. Sauf que...

Merci de votre visite.

Notre magasin de musique utilise présentement la technologie Windows Media pour jouer nos fichiers musicaux. Malheureusement, cela signifie [sic] que nos fichiers musicaux sont incompatibles avec votre système d'exploitation. De plus, le système iTunes FairPlay de Apple [sic] ne nous est présentement pas [sic] disponible pour fins d'utilisation avec des [sic] iPods.

Nous aimerions offrir notre musique aux utilisateurs [des] Mac[s], et nous sommes en train de travailler sur la possibilité d'offrir notre nouveau contenu sous de nouveaux formats.

This is nearly worthless unless...

I can search for only DRM free songs. I've just checked out the website, and found no way to look only for non-DRM music.

Even if 90% of their music was DRM free, if I don't find out until I get to the song in question, it's going to be a very aggravating browsing and shopping experience. Imagine finding a song you want to here, only to discover you can't use it. Unless they offer a way to filter out the stuff I can't use, why should I waste my time looking through their stuff? It would be bad enough if it was mostly DRM-free - but given that it's mostly stuff I can't listen to, why would I waste my time?

Re:This is nearly worthless unless...

I've just checked out the website, and found no way to look only for non-DRM music.

Wrong. Click the "MP3" link (4th item on the menu bar at the top of the page). Although I suppose I have to take into consideration that you may not be aware that MP3s contain no DRM.

Or, if that's too much work, click here: http://www.puretracks.com/content/viewer.aspx?cid= GlobalNav_MP3 [puretracks.com]

Come off it

I have my doubts that this article can possibly be true. Remember that the music is only being sold because the big labels of this world - the RIAA (do they cover Canada as well?) say that it may be.

As soon as any of the music stores start selling RIAA-covered music without DRM, expect the RIAA to come down on them like a ton of lawyers.

Re:Come off it

The RIAA specifically does not exist in Canada. That's a U.S.-only cartel for American-based record labels. In Canada, there's the CRIA, which is made up of the Canadian branches of those major labels, plus whatever Canadian-based indies have decided to join. So it's basically the same thing, but specific to each country.

Remind me again...

...what did 'DRM' stand for, exactly...?

DRM or mp3 makes no difference

I won't pay for compressed, overprocessed, overpriced downloads, what I will pay for is flac files at a dime a pop, indeed, when it's cheaper and easier to download than to share or rip, then, and only then, will music "sales" reach their true porential levels.

The way I see it, artists need to dump the middlemen and sell directly to the public. Neither artists, nor audiences need anything to be between them at all, in fact.

Canadians only, the story is NOT bogus

After reading a lot of people from the USA claiming this was bullshit and making a big fuss about it (something you do a lot of) I went to the site myself, and sure enough, there's PLENTY of albums available in MP3 format.

I live in Canada and we're seeing the links. I suspect that since the RIAA rules your dominion, you guys are stuck living in a DRM world for Puretracks but for Canadians, we're finally seeing some MP3's on this site.

You guys gotta stop flaming other people and claiming the story is bullshit until you do a little research. Just because you live in the US doesn't mean that you can get to it. It's the same thing that pisses me off about American websites that advertise the ability to stream TV shows but the moment I try it, no luck because I live in Canada.

BTW, since I have bought stuff from Puretracks in the past, I received an email from them just prior to reading the post on Slashdot. Here's a copy of the letter.

----
Thank you for being a Puretracks customer. We are very excited to announce that as of today Puretracks will be offering MP3 files for sale on our site at Puretracks.com: http://www.puretracks.com/content/viewer.aspx?cid= GlobalNav_MP3 [puretracks.com].
And as the first North American digital service provider to launch 'a la carte' MP3 music downloads, we're happy to offer you a free MP3 track from the popular Canadian band The Barenaked Ladies.
The track, called 'The Sound of Your Voice,' will be delivered along with the February 27th Puretracks newsletter. You will need to be a registered newsletter subscriber to be eligible to download this track.
If you don't currently receive our newsletter (filled with weekly free tracks and exclusive content), click here to register.
MP3s at Puretracks
MP3 tracks are easy to download (no licenses required) and can be played on all digital audio devices. Puretracks currently offers over 50,000 tracks in French and English from popular artists such as: Sarah McLachlan, Broken Social Scene, Feist, The Barenaked Ladies, Jean Leloup and Richard Seguin. Track prices starting at $ 0.79 each.
Be sure to register now for the Puretracks newsletter to get your free MP3 track from The Barenaked Ladies! Click here to register. If you are already registered, watch for your February 27th Puretracks newsletter to get your free track.
Regards,

Alistair Mitchell,
CEO

so what happens to vista

once drm is dead? will there be a ms patch to remove the 30 checks per second, etc and make it not suck? personally, i hope ms fights it till the end, and keeps vista the piece of crap it is. just the thought that drm might be dead before vista really start shipping gives me great joy.

Can't go there with a Mac.

Interestingly, I still can't even go to their site with my Mac. When I go to puretracks.com in Safari on my Mac, I get the following unfriendly message:

We apologize, but www.puretracks.com is not available for Mac OS.

I am thinking that they might want to rethink their strategy for breaking into the iPod market...

Ding, dong..

the witch is dead, the wicked witch is dead...

Not the Only One

Though puretracks may have just dropped DRM, they're not the only company in Canada to offer that. Another company called Zunior (zunior.com [zunior.com]) is doing the same but they take it a step further and offer downloads in FLAC format. They also include album images and such in the download. That's the way to do it. I wish every company would treat their music downloads this way. People have high-speed connections now, why not offer high-quality audio? I don't want to pay $8-10 for MP3s when I can get the CD for nearly the same price but I'll pay it for a guarantee of high audio quality and liner notes, with the ease of an immediate download.

This is NOT new!

Zunior.com has been selling music from these exact artists in DRM-free MP3 format for a while now. And unlike Puretracks, they do not block Mac users.

re: DRM free MP3s - Verified

Hi guys, I am in Canada and gave this a try, works fine for me at this URL (which I'm sure needs a Canadian IP)
http://www.puretracks.com/content/viewer.aspx?cid= GlobalNav_MP3 [puretracks.com]

Theres actually a decent selection - Jimi Hendrix, Bare naked ladies, anthrax, prodigy etc...

Although I still like ripping my cds. I would sue one of these sites if I could get MP3s in true stereo, 112-320 VBR. I could care less if my iPod can hold 1000 songs that I wont even listen to in ok quality, because I would rather have 100-200 songs in near CD quality. Just my opinion

PureTracks MP3 FAQ

From: http://www.puretracks.com/content/viewer.aspx?cid= GlobalNav_MP3 [puretracks.com] (only from Canadian IP addresses. Seems to work with Firefox)

Q: What are MP3s?
A: MP3 files are the most common type of digital audio file found today. Flexibility is a key part of music these days, and MP3 files offer the most compatibility of any format. If you have a computer or a digital music device, odds are it plays MP3 files, no matter who makes it.
Q: So does that mean I can use these songs on my Apple iPod? Phone? PDA? Sony PSP? SANDisk Sansa? Microsoft Zune? Etc.?
A: Yes
Q: Are there any restrictions on MP3 files? Do they cost more?
A: No. MP3 files have no Digital Rights Management (DRM) restrictions and cost the same as the Windows Media Audio (WMA) files that we sell.
Q: Why do you have both WMA and MP3 files?
A: Puretracks' music catalog contains content from all major labels and numerous independent labels. Currently, most of our catalog is available in the WMA format. This is due to the fact that each music label has its own policies regarding the availability of their digital tracks and the format they are allowed to be sold in. As time goes on, we hope to significantly expand our MP3 offering.
Q: What's the difference between WMA and MP3 files, and which is better?
A: This really comes down to personal preference. Both file formats offered on Puretracks are delivered in top (192kb) sound quality and are completely virus free. How you intend to use the file should dictate which format you choose to purchase.
Q: I heard that MP3 files can contain viruses, are they safe?
A: Every file sold on Puretracks, regardless of the format, is guaranteed to be 100% virus free. While MP3 viruses are uncommon, it is possible to get an infected MP3 file from a source such as a peer to peer (P2P) network. All Puretracks MP3 files are delivered to our customers free of viruses and abnormalities.
Q: Does this mean I can buy songs from Puretracks on a Mac?
A: Not yet. But we are definitely working on it.
Q: What are the terms of use for MP3 files?
A: Content sold by Puretracks, whether in WMA or MP3 format, is protected by copyrights, trademarks,and/or other proprietary rights under the laws of Canada and other countries. In purchasing MP3's, you agree to use the content only for personal, non-commercial, lawful purposes and not for resale to, or other transfer to, or use by or for the benefit of, any other person or entity.

Yea!

Hitting the site I see a Polyphonic Spree album. Instead of the previously hippie-ish look, they now have this fascist thing going. Why do I expect to hear that the whole band offs themselves by drinking koolaide someday?

Use DRM where its useful...

I am glad to see DRM go away on purchased music as I agree that its bad for numerous and already explained reasons but I absolutely do not want DRM to die. DRM is necessary to enable music subscription, movie rentals, game rentals and subscriptions and various other related ideas. In that case you don't "own" the file so its ok that they are enforcing some restrictions. Lock-in isn't even a huge problem as you can just resubscribe elsewhere if you get an incompatible device. Anyways, DRM has some beneficial uses in enabling valuable and interesting business models that otherwise would be difficult to make work.

Here is our chance!

Go vote with your dollars, people. If a decent percentage of the Slashdot population buys DRM-free music from Puretracks, it will bolster the message that we do not want encumbered music in a big way.

EU puretracks? Please?

Any plans for this company to set up shop in the old Europe?

oh Canada

1. At this moment (17:45 EST Thursday Feb 22 2007) in Canada, PureTracks.com still gives the "so sorry, you're on a Mac, go away" notice page 2. If you go to PureTracks in Canada on a PC, there is MP3 music you can buy 3. But you might as well buy most of it from Nettwerk Music, which works on a Mac and has most of the big names you may be looking for, and which has been selling MP3s for years

http://www.werkshop.com/ [werkshop.com]. I just wrote about this today: DRM and legal music in Canada [typepad.com]

From the Conspiracy Dept.

... with Warner Music CEO Edgar Bronfman saying the argument for removing DRM was "completely without logic or merit." London-based EMI Group, however, is reportedly exploring the lifting of DRM restrictions on its music. Warner this week annouced a new bid to acquire EMI.Emphasis mine

So, is Warner making the move to buy EMI to head off the gang at the DRM pass? From Warner's perspective, DRM is a we-all-stick-together proposition; the only way it can fly is if all the major labels, and hence all the major artists, close ranks and enforce DRM. Does Warner think that if EMI breaks rank, it's over? Are they willing to spend $USD 4.4 Billion to try to ensure the future of DRM?

EMWTK!

Too little, too late.

The nail is already in the coffin for all existing online music stores. I will put them all out of business.

Re:This isn't Slashdot's Fault

CBC is a Canadian broadcaster. You are not Canadian. CBC sees the MP3 tracks on the site when they access it. You don't, you are redirected to the US shop where there are no MP3 tracks.