EMI Experiments With DRM-free MP3's

trifster writes "Ars Technica has an article about EMI selling DRM-free MP3's through Yahoo Music's US online store. It should be noted that this trial is an attempt to increase sales and competition with online music that is not necessarilary available on iTunes." From the article: "Why the sudden interest in non-DRMed formats? It appears that the record labels are slowly beginning to realize that they can't have DRMed music and complete control over the online music market at the same time.... There are signs that consumers might be growing irritated by the Balkanization of the online music scene. Nielsen SoundScan reports that online music sales dropped during the second and third quarters of the year."

Re:W00t - not.

[Daemonstar]

Oriental \O`ri*en"tal\, n. 1. A native or inhabitant of the Orient or some Eastern part of the world; an Asiatic. [1913 Webster]

Just because someone may prefer one name over another doesn't negate the definition.

My favourite non-DRM MP3 source...

[leoc]

http://www.Zunior.com [zunior.com]

I'm not affiliated, other than being a very happy customer.

Re:Which song?

[dlim]

The Norah Jones song is "Thinking About You" from the new album "Not Too Late" due January 30th, 2007 and it's nearly impossible to find on Yahoo Music's site. It's a 192 Kbps mp3. Here's a direct link to the promo landing page (don't ask my why it's at "amplified.com"):

http://www.amplified.com/thinkingaboutyou [amplified.com]

Oh yeah, FF users, ignore the message about "No Windows Media Player". You don't need it. Just click OK.

Re:Which song?

[whoami-ky]

Thanks. I found it. If you want to start at the Yahoo site, the link is http://music.yahoo.com/promos/norahjonesmp3/ [yahoo.com]. By the way, I did purchase the song. It's not too bad. I just wanted to let them (RIAA, EMI, etc.) that I'm willing to pay for non-DRM'd music.

Not Easy to Find, Not Easy To Buy, but I did it.

[weston]

So, yeah, I searched Yahoo's site, and pretty much think the article is wrong. Yahoo Music is not selling this track as an MP3 (alternatively, their peanut butter may be spread so thin they're simply unable to actually execute the policy of selling it, even though they've decided they're selling it).

But this "amplified.com" site is in fact selling it. However, I've never heard of them before, and like a lot of other online retailers who I've never purchased from, I'm reluctant to hand over my credit card number. So I decided to use a feature my credit card offers called "ShopSafe", which lets you generate temporary numbers with a given limit and expiration date.

I decided to use a temporary number I created two weeks ago that had one dollar left on the account. The purchase came back "declined due to insufficient funds". Odd, given that the track was supposed to be $.99, and there's a dollar left on the limit.

OK, I decided to create a new number, just in case the old one was the problem. Limit $1, expires 2/07.

Declined due to insufficient funds.

Well, maybe like many companies, they actually ding you for just a bit more for some reason. OK. I bumped the limit on the temp number up to $5.

Declined due to insufficient funds.

Suffice it to say that if this was just about purchasing the song, I would have given up by this point for certain. But I don't want some brain-damanged analyst who is unable to fathom the very idea of *ease of experience* to attribute the failure of this promo to piracy (or worse "people like DRM"), so in principle I want to support it.

$10 limit: declined due to insufficient funds.

I'm sorry? $10 in an account is not enough to purchase a $1 song? This must be the kind of Math that the analytically challenged record labels use to determine their loss figures.

I was finally able to buy when giving the card a limit of $25. For a $1 song. Not to mention 20 minutes of work.

It is an MP3, and it's not bad. For the song itself, it wouldn't be worth the hassle.