Interviews with Digital Media Thought Leaders
Implications of DRM-Free Distribution by Major Labels
Podcast Audio | Posted by Phil Leigh on February 2, 2008
Summary: If you would like to get an industry executive’s perspective about the decision by all four major record labels to abandon DRMs, this interview is for you.
Our guest today is David Pakman who is the CEO of eMusic. His company is the largest seller of online music in the DRM-free MP3 format. However, the eMusic catalogue historically was limited to independent record labels. Now that the majors have decided to sell DRM-free tracks it looks like a good time to catch-up with David to see what the implications are for eMusic and the industry at large. Since it has been selling DRM-free music from independent labels on the Internet for nearly ten years, eMusic applauds the decision by the four majors to abandon DRM. The change will make available an entirely new catalogue for eMusic. However, the company wants to continue focusing on its audience of mature adults, so they are not likely to go after some of the ephemeral hits among the bands that are most popular to youthful consumers. Additionally, eMusic will likely retain its monthly subscription pricing.
As for the industry at large, eMusic management concludes that DRM-free distribution is a major step forward. They also believe that the pricing level within the industry will decline significantly over time, although the trend is not yet obvious.
Phil’s Take. Now that the major labels have abandoned the White Whale of DRM, which had become such a distracting obsession, they will likely turn their considerable skills toward finding-out how to use the Internet to generate revenues in advertising-supported activities. They will also likely intensify their focus on discovering how to use the Internet to popularize new releases, which is an activity that historically has been the lifeblood of the industry’s growth.
Categories: Podcast Audio
Tags: David-Pakman, digital-media, digital-music, DRM, DRM-Free, EMI, eMusic, Phil-Leigh, record-labels, Sony-BMG, Universal-Music, Warner-Music
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I wonder if audio book publishers will follow suit. To my knowledge all the larger publishers are still distibuting audio books with DRM.