DRM free Comes with Music on Nokia's roadmap
Published by Rafe Blandford at 16:39 UTC, March 2nd 2009
It is just a matter of time before the Nokia Music Store (purchase per track) goes DRM free, but reports from Nokia's 'Comes with Music' launch in Singapore cite Adam Mirabella, Director of Global Digital Music Retail at Nokia, as saying DRM free music is also 'on the roadmap for the future integration of Comes With Music'. Clearly such a move is still some time away and the statement is not definitive, but it's a sign of how keen Nokia is to push its music offerings.
Here's the relevant extract, as reported by Channelnewsasia
Adam Mirabella, director, Global Digital Music Retail, Nokia, said: "We have dialogues going with all of our partners and Digital Rights Management-free (DRM-free) is also on the roadmap for the future integration of 'Comes With Music'."
The current DRM restrictions are certainly an obstacle to wide spread adoption of Comes with Music. Together with the limited availability (both handsets and markets) and issues with communicating the offers to consumers it is one of the main reasons that Comes with Music has yet and, in its current form, is unlikely to threaten 'traditional' digital music sales.
However a DRM free subscription service would have the potential to very rapidly disrupt the current business models for digital music sales.
It is worth sounding a note of caution - intentions are not the same as implementations. A DRM free model will have been on the road map from the very beginning, but real world implementations will always be a compromise between the interested parties.
That said you can read some, limited, significance into the fact this was mentioned at a launch event. It is clear that the music industry is moving towards the subscription model and DRM free music, but the time scale is fluid. Nokia, as the worlds biggest music player manufacturer, is uniquely positioned to help drive change, but its scale and global reach introduce problems of their own.
As for the current purchase per download Nokia Music Store we would anticipate this going DRM free in the not too distant future. There will be far less angst from music labels about this move as it has already been widely and successfully implemented in other digital music stores.
I know I'd be the first in the queue for a DRM free Comes with Music offering, but then I'm one of the people who's already purchased Comes with Music in its current form. What about you?
Categories: Software, Links of Interest, Industry, Editorial Thoughts
Platforms: General, S60 3rd Edition, S60 5th Edition
News Discussion
Unregistered
Stuff all this DRM, it's too much hassle. I'll stick to ripping CDs.
Williamoni
Rafe - your article implies that Nokia will make the purchase of songs DRM-free quite soon, whilst maintaining the DRM-ness for those who have Comes With Music for some time after this. Isn't that quite a bit of hassle to maintain two systems - one with DRM and one without?
I'm a big fan of CWM even in its present form. If it went DRM-free then I'll be second in the queue for it.
Rafe
Williamoni - I don't have any definitive information. But bare in mind the files for CwM are already different to the purchased song. CwM songs have more restrictions (e.g. you can't burn them to a CD and have more restrictive transfer rights).
I'm not sure whether this is maintained as two sets of files or not (in theory rights could be applied dynamically before download).
i.e. DRM-free files could be .wma - just without any restrictions. Though I imagine they would look to move to MP3 or eAAC+ in time.
So no I don't think this would be an issue.
N/A
DRM-free CWM does probably have an element I suspect might be a bit hard for most record labels to swallow (to allow).
With DRM-free single-track or album sales, a consumer has to pay for the track(s) before they are allowed to get access to the DRM-free file(s).
That fact is to some degree "throttling" how many DRM-free music tracks a single individual can download from any music service and redistribute illegally via some P2P system, if they decide they want to.
That way, if a single individual want to redistribute, say, 5 million music tracks (or whatever is the correct number offered by the CMW service by Nokia), they need to spend 4MEUR to buy those tracks, if they cost, e.g., 0.70EUR each to buy (5M x 0.70 = 4M). No too many individuals can afford to spend 4MEUR to buy digital music.
If a CWM phone would allow a single individual to access and download also (the same) 5 million music tracks DRM-free for the additional cost of, say 70EUR (markup above the device price without CWM + a couple of 1TB hard drivers where to store them), then that'd still be a whole lot (!) cheaper than 4MEUR for the individual to be able to access and start redistributing the 5 million music tracks on a P2P network. And that's what I think music labels might be allergic to regarding DRM-free CMW. (I don't know if they are, because I haven't been in any discussions with any record labels regarding CMW or DRM.)
Unregistered
And it is not entirely about music labels, it is also about the people who own the rights for the music and are entitled for some share of the sold music. And that is more complicated to negotiate than to settle with the labels; as there is also legislation that protects the rights owners.
gilka
I think removing the DRM will be very wise. The promise of free music for 1 year is not complete without being able to play it on any device. I wrote my opinion on the proposition here:
www dot gilka dot co dot uk/2009/03/08/nokia-phones-comes-with-music-but-not-with-what-users-really-need
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