Is Amazon Working On A DRM-Free Music Download Store?

from the recognizing-apple's-achilles-heel dept

Tue, Dec 19th 2006 3:04pm — Mike Masnick

I remember conversations from as far back as 1998 about whether or not Amazon.com should offer a downloadable music store -- but the company has always been cautious despite plenty of rumors. Way back in 2003, there were rumors that the company would team up with Apple to somehow offer iTunes songs through Amazon.com -- a rumor that failed to pan out. Earlier this year, there were rumors that Amazon was talking to record labels about, once again, trying to launch its own music download store, perhaps with its own hardware as well (suggesting someone confused the offering with Microsoft's ill-fated Zune product). However, this summer it was reported that Amazon had decided that it wasn't worth competing with Apple in music downloads, given how strong Apple's position in the market has been.

However, perhaps recent revelations have opened Amazon's eyes to Apple's big achilles heel: the copy protection they use. The record labels, for all their obsession over copy protection, know that Apple's use of copy protection has given the company tremendous leverage over them in negotiations over pricing for digital downloads. They've also just started to understand that there's value in selling unprotected MP3s. With all that in mind, the latest rumor (as submitted by John) is that Amazon is back on the negotiating trail, pitching the record labels on a DRM-free music download store. If they're smart, they'd be pitching it as a way to break Apple's stranglehold on the market -- but given how most of the other Amazon music download store rumors have panned out, we're not holding our breath. However, the rumor also notes that Amazon is supposedly offering variable pricing on songs -- something that the record labels have been pushing for (unsuccessfully) for years with Apple. So, perhaps it's a bit of horse trading: Amazon gives the labels variable pricing, if they agree to give up copy protection. Still, after seeing just how awful Amazon's foray into video downloads has been, you'd have to hope that they would only use that experience to learn what not to do with any new offering.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

18 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

Anonymous Coward, 19 Dec 2006 @ 3:14pm

drm free is great.. variable pricing - i dont know. $.99 a song is good - Going up and above will definately test the market.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 19 Dec 2006 @ 3:15pm

I won't spend more than $1 a song - I would rather burn and rip songs from Itunes than pay more than that.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Peter, 19 Dec 2006 @ 3:25pm

im sure im...
Im sure im just stating what everyone already knows but when you burn a DRM song on a cd (at least a wma DRM song), the DRM attributes don't carry over onto the cd. So when you burn a wma DRM song, you can just rip it right after and no more DRM. So I don't understand why there is DRM.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 19 Dec 2006 @ 3:27pm

yes god please
Thats all I have to say.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 19 Dec 2006 @ 3:28pm

Re: im sure im...
Its a hurdle. By making it harder they cut down on some (perhaps immeasurably tiny) amount of casual piracy. Its supposed to be easier to tell your friends to download this cool song on itunes than it is for you to burn it and rip it and email it to them.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Petréa Mitchell, 19 Dec 2006 @ 3:42pm

Re: im sure im...
"Im sure im just stating what everyone already knows..."

Sadly, the vast majority of people buying DRMed music do not know that. They only know that one day they try to make a copy for some reason that makes sense to them and it doesn't work.

Has anyone ever done a study trying to quantify the cost of DRM to hardware/software makers and retailers in the form of support calls saying "Hey, my computer doesn't work, I can't copy this thing?"
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Peter, 19 Dec 2006 @ 3:42pm

Re: Re: im sure im...
true, but I was trying to point out how fairly simple it is to get around DRM.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Petréa Mitchell, 19 Dec 2006 @ 3:46pm

Re: yes god please
That goes double for me. The only reason I don't subscribe to eMusic is I wouldn't be downloading enough tracks per month to justify the subscription price.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 19 Dec 2006 @ 4:09pm

Re: Re: yes god please
Could we {as in the public at large,} Form a publicly owned/operated corporation. If every /.'r coughed up say $10 every two months, could we gather enough to buy the rights, Break the DRM, then Share for a nominal fee??
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Stoned4Life, 19 Dec 2006 @ 4:21pm

Re: Re: Re: yes god please
form a public operated corporation and pay $5 a month for DRM free music?

That's like paying for limewire
[ link to this | view in thread ]
anonymous coward, 19 Dec 2006 @ 4:23pm

eMusic has the alternative non-DRM market stitched up and iTunes and M$ will be warring over the DRM market, so Amazon should either do it without DRM or skip it.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Erv Server, 19 Dec 2006 @ 7:28pm

DRM
I hope Amazon does start selling music but I hope they offer DRM as an addon because I love DRM
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Pleepus, 19 Dec 2006 @ 7:46pm

Re: DRM
Are you aware of what DRM is?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Kris, 19 Dec 2006 @ 7:55pm

Re: Re: DRM
No, what is it?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 20 Dec 2006 @ 2:40am

Re: Re: Re: DRM
OH man catch up with the times, it makes the music sound so much better and is so much clearer than that crappy old MP3 stuff. All the best music has it now.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
I Heart DRM, 20 Dec 2006 @ 8:03am

Re: Re: Re: Re: DRM
Yeah, I even got DRM for my dog and it's great, he doesn't go into other peoples yards anymore. The only problem is that he doesn't fit into too many dog carriers anymore.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
refize, 28 Dec 2006 @ 12:52am

Another great DRM-free mp3 store is www.iomoio.com. Their holiday’s bonus scheme (till 23:59:59 12/31/2006) is amazing. I've deposited $30 and got $60 credited into my account. I mean it's already cheap (price per song is only $0.15) and now with bonuses like that, you can say that one song costs ONLY $0.075. SEVEN cents for DRM-free mp3? I DEFINITELY CAN LIVE WITH THAT:)
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Bob, 24 Mar 2007 @ 7:48am

Audio Watermarking will be the new DRM
No one here has mentioned Audio Watermarking. Audio Watermarking allows companys to embed copyright information into an MP3 file. The benefit is that it is undetectable by listeners and it will stay with the file when converted to other audio formats. Even if the MP3 file is broadcast over a loudspeaker and recorded, the watermark stays with the file!

If you plan on sharing your watermarked MP3 on a peer-to-peer network, be aware that the ability for these companys to scan file sharing networks for these watermarks also exsists.

I believe watermarking will effectivly solve the file sharing problem in that it will give users the freedom to move any song file on any player, but also will deter sharing over networks by putting the fear of detection in place.

Just my two cents.
[ link to this | view in thread ]