The beginning of the end for DRM?

DRM has never been a popular way to distribute music. It has been common, but not popular. Traditional DRM has been criticized for good reason. It's a technology that supports a business model where it treats every customer like a criminal. In the case of music, the assumption is, "well some people may share their purchased music with friends or online so we are going to cripple what you can do with it from the get go". Again, DRM in the case of music, assumes everyone is a criminal. I am not saying that there aren't people bending the law, or flat out breaking it when it comes to the distribution of music files but that doesn't mean that every user should have to be forced to purchase crippled music files. If piracy really is a problem, then a suitable technology should be developed that will thwart piracy (if such a solution could even exist) without restricting or removing fair usage for Joe User.

Apple's online media store, iTunes Store has been one of the top retailers of online music sales over the past couple of years. On Febuary 6, 2007 Steve Jobs wrote an open letter to the music industry voicing his dislike of DRM. Steve Jobs was not the first to publicly criticize DRM, but he was one of the first to openly criticize it while being the head of a company in the market of selling online music. Not to be hypocritical, two months later Apple then followed up by offering non-DRM music on the iTunes Store for a slightly higher price. Now, in a move that will surely shake up the online music market, Amazon has just launched their music catalog DRM FREE.

Is this the beginning of the end for DRM? Users of (legally) downloaded music have always complained about the restrictive nature of DRM'ed music. They have felt betrayed being treated like a criminal with music they legally paid for, but yet have had little to no control over. Whether it be what player they use, what format it is in, or sometimes even how long they have "permission" to play the song before it is unplayable. With major players like Apple and now Amazon jumping on board, this may signal a new shift away from DRM in the online music industry and not only offering consumers what they want but by sending a loud message to the music industry, "DRM is NOT the way to do it".