| Thursday, August 9, 2007 |
21:06 - FIGHT THE POWER
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,292813,00.html
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Bet this'll work out great for 'em:
Universal Music Group said Thursday it will sell digital music from artists
such as Sting, 50 Cent and Stevie Wonder without the customary
copy-protection technology for a limited time.
Tracks from thousands of albums will be available for purchase on the
recording artists' Web sites and through several established online music
retailers, although Universal is excluding Apple Inc.'s iTunes store, the
No. 1 online music retailer.
What I have to wonder is, was the decision to exclude iTunes Universal's idea... or Apple's? These are plain-Jane MP3s, not AACs or even WMAs; I wonder if that, or the idea that they'd only be able to sell the tracks for a limited time, might have prompted the Steve to give them the royal nose in the air? Or maybe Universal really is just "testing" the concept, so that if it doesn't work out well for them they don't have to backtrack on having to kowtow to Apple's rules?
Who knows. But it'll be interesting to see what comes of this. Hey, anybody hear how EMI's doing lately?
Via Steven Den Beste.
UPDATE: Gruber says:
Um, Universal won’t sell DRM-free music through iTunes because they don’t like Apple’s DRM? WTF? Am I even supposed to pretend this makes sense?
He does have a way of cutting to the heart of the matter...
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Brian Tiemann
