In a move that would mark the end of a digital music era, Sony BMG Music Entertainment is finalizing plans to sell songs without the copyright protection software that has long restricted the use of music downloaded from the Internet, BusinessWeek.com has learned.
Sweeet! But what does this mean?
This means that you'll be able to buy music from anywhere you want, and it'll play on any music player you want. Guaranteed. Doesn't matter if it's an iPod or a Microsoft Zune or an iRiver or whatever. It'll work.
So what's the big deal? Well maybe you've been downloading music illegally for so long, you haven't even noticed this thing called Digital Rights Management (DRM). If you don't know what DRM is, let me give you a brief history:
Remember the good 'ol days of Napster? You could download any song you could possibly think of, easily and conveniently. Of course it was all very, very illegal. So to protect the revenues of the recording industry, DRM was invented.
The idea behind DRM was this: prevent people from illegally sharing music on the internet. Understandable.
But what really happened? The recording industry forced companies like Apple and Microsoft to lock down all digital music sold. So if you spent a lot of money buying music from Yahoo! Music, or Wal-Mart Online, or the Sony Music Store, and then decide to switch to an iPod...too fucking bad! All of that music was locked by DRM and will only play on Microsoft-sanctioned players. And that's bullshit.
It's similar to how in the U.S. you have cellphones that only work on certain cellphone carriers. But then around the rest of the world, you can buy any cellphone and use it with any service. Awesome. That's the way cellphones should be.
And that's the way music should be too.
(As a sidenote: don't illegally download music from things like Lime Wire or torrents. The last I heard, the going rate for settling a legal case vs. the RIAA is $35,000. Are you ever gonna download that much music in your lifetime? No. Just pay for your music cuz $35,000 is just not worth it.)
(Another sidenote: DRM is on the way out, but watermarking your downloads with your personal info is in. If you download DRM-free music, do NOT share it!)</p>
In closing, I'd like to leave you with a YouTube video.