Steve Jobs has posted a long piece on the future of DRM in music. It seems that he can see the writing on the wall, and he ends the piece effectively arguing for the abolition of DRM (“It wasn’t out idea guv! The record companies insisted on it.”).
There’s a certain amount of self-interest here. Apple has become something of a monopoly with its locked system of players and the iTunes music store, and it’s in Europe where the rumblings about the possible illegality of this situation are causing some concern, with Norway most recently saying that the current state of affairs is illegal.
So Apple is turning it back on the major record companies, with Jobs helpfully pointing out that 2.5 out of 4 of them are European owned. Apple would drop DRM, he say, in a “heartbeat.”
Of course the current state of affairs is unsustainable. More people are realising that their mobile phones are effective music players but that their current collections need to be either re-ripped, bought again, or they have to go through a laborious burn-to-cd-and-then-rip process. Profits from the iTunes music store are never going to be enough to sustain Apple – their future remains hardware. So get ahead of the curve now.
Of course there is some disingenuousness about Jobs position. I have an eMusic subscription that offers me a fixed monthly ration of unprotected mp3s to download. So it would seem to me that Apple could already sell any track that currently appears on eMusic (all from independents – not the majors) DRM free already. Yet as far as I’m aware, the latest Barenaked Ladies album has DRM attached if I buy it from iTunes but not if I buy it from eMusic (By the way, I do have issues with eMusic as well. Their one credit = one track approach doesn’t work too well if an artist has filled their album with 20+ songs compared to a classical album that might only be 4 tracks).
So Apple needs to put their money where their mouth is and remove DRM from tracks that don’t need to have it. Then they can put a little logo on those that do still have DRM attached that could become the
[Update] Steve Page of the same Barenaked Ladies that I used as a random example above blogs about this very story. As a band who sell USB keys with unencrypted mp3s to fans, he’s more than happy for iTunes to ditch DRM on his band’s stuff as soon as they like. The physical new album, incidentally, Barenaked Ladies Are Men, only came out this week in the N America, and arrives in UK stores next week. I’ve had it since last year I think! (Oooh. Just seen that they’re playing Hammersmith at the end of March. Must sort out tickets!)