DRM Articles

Apple Trying to Kill Off CDs
By Chris Crum · September 3, 2008 · 3

The push toward making CDs obsolete has taken another step as Apple is going to begin offering album art applications. This is one aspect of physical products like CDs and Vinyl that music enthusiasts have been reluctant to part with in favor of the digital age, but when that aspect becomes available as part of said age, will they still have something to cling to?

Napster Is Losing Subscribers
By Bruce Houghton · August 12, 2008

The latest financial report from Napster showed only slightly wider losses of 4.4 m

Yahoo Music Unlimited Shutdown A DRM Mess
By WebProNews Staff · July 25, 2008 · 1

The Electronic Frontier Foundation criticized Yahoo’s planned shutdown of DRM servers for its music store and asked the company to take care of its customers.

Yahoo Music Is Shutting Its Doors
By Bruce Houghton · July 24, 2008

There had to be a better way. It’s no surprise that Yahoo! Music is shutting down its download store and pointing customers to Rhapsody. But did they have to pull a Microsoft and stop supporting the retrieval of license keys or authorize playback on additional computers? Here’s the email that came last night:

Warner Music Group Offers Catalog To Wal-Mart.com
By Bruce Houghton · May 7, 2008

The Warner Music Group family of labels has widened its full catalog mp3 offering to incl

EFF Blasts MSN Music Shutdown
By WebProNews Staff · April 30, 2008 · 4

Customers will be left holding onto inaccessible music once Microsoft turns off the licensing servers for songs purchased through MSN Music, a situation the Electronic Frontier Foundation finds untenable.

Has Apple Seen the Height of its Success with Music?
By Bruce Houghton · January 16, 2008

At yesterday’s MacWorld keynote, Steve Jobs unveiled no new major music initiatives at iTunes or with the iPod line.

The Internet and the Music Industry
By Janet Meiners · January 15, 2008

Ever since I blogged for a music site, I’ve watched how the Internet has transformed the music industry.

Here are some recent highlights – and they are sad songs:

Amazon Gets Sony BMG Tracks
By Bruce Houghton · January 11, 2008

UPDATED: The entire Sony BMG catalog will be available on Amazon MP3 beginning later this month. Sony BMG is the last major label to drop DRM

Sony BMG, DRM Free, Heads To Amazon
By WebProNews Staff · January 10, 2008 · 1

The glaringly missing online component to Sony BMG’s plan to sell music without DRM turned out to be a newly revealed deal with Amazon.com.

Godin on the Music Industry
By Bruce Houghton · January 9, 2008

Best selling author and marketing guru

Sony BMG Becomes Last Major Label to Drop DRM
By Bruce Houghton · January 4, 2008

BusinessWeek is reporting and our sources confirm that Sony BMG will offer at least part of its catalog available DRM free in the first quarter of the year making it the

Kindle DRM Down the Tubes
By Dan Morrill · December 13, 2007

Yet another DRM goes down the tubes, this time it is for the kindle, while the reviews have been mixed, most folks who got their hands on the kindle like it, but as usual wish that it could do more than it was originally designed to do.

Universal DRM Free Music Speeding Up
By Bruce Houghton · November 30, 2007

The slow march towards universal DRM free music appears about to become a sprint to the finish line.

Recent developments pushing Sony BMG, WMG and other holdouts to reconsider their protectionist positions include:

Has the DRM Free Experiment Failed?
By Bruce Houghton · November 19, 2007

The last year has been filled with announcement after announcement marking the end of DRM. DRM-free pioneer eMusic was thriving.

EMI dropped DRM across its entire catalog.

MLB Picks Off Game Download Buyers
By WebProNews Staff · November 7, 2007

There is no joy in Mudville, as mighty DRM has struck out fans who bought baseball videos from MLB.com.

Yahoo Music Guy Says No To DRM
By WebProNews Staff · October 9, 2007

Ian Rogers of Yahoo Music won’t let the company waste any more money on licensing deals that make listening to music inconvenient to users.

Wal-Mart Launches DRM- Free Downloads
By Mike Sachoff · August 21, 2007

Wal-Mart said today that it is launching "DRM-free" MP3 music downloads. Single tracks will be 94 cents a piece and a whole album will sell for $9.22.

Google Apologizes For Video Shutdown
By WebProNews Staff · August 21, 2007

After being blistered by criticism over the abrupt termination of the Google Video program, Google has offered an apology and full credit to video purchasers.

Google, Universal Get In On DRM-Free Music
By Doug Caverly · August 14, 2007

Thanks to Universal Music Group and a new service called gBox, DRM-free music will become available through Google’s search engine. Sounds interesting, right? You should also know that these songs will be 30 cents cheaper than the ones sold by iTunes.

Oh No, There Goes Google Video!
By WebProNews Staff · August 12, 2007

Google’s nineteen-month experiment in selling online video ends in a few days, as the company shuts down Google Video and all of the videos purchased from it by consumers.