I think we all know restrictive digital rights management technology is a thing of the past, but let us not forget that two of the major record companies are still living in the past. Although, as reported yesterday, word has it SonyBMG are about to get up to date and drop their insistence that their music is only sold with DRM protection - which would leave just Warner Music hanging on to the expensive, ineffective, redundant and unpopular technology.
But either way, the Entertainment Retailers Association, which represents most of the UK's high street and online music sellers, has weighed in to the debate by calling on everyone in the mad world of recorded music to drop DRM once and for all, and to sell their music in the user-friendly MP3 format, like what EMI and Universal now does. And what more or less every indie label has done for a long time.
In an open letter, seen by the Financial Times, to those still advocating DRM, ERA Director General Kim Bayley says that by only selling their music in rights-protected formats, which only play on players compatible with each format, the record labels are "stifling growth and working against the consumer interest". Everyone in the record industry is concerned that the growth of the digital music market is not yet matching the decline in CD sales but, Bayley argues, the major label's DRM policies, which make digital music less consumer friendly "might have added to the slow take-up of legal digital services".
The ERA chief goes on to cite research which says that consumers are almost four times more likely to choose an MP3 file over a DRM-protected track if both are available. Recognising that EMI has made its catalogue available with DRM, and that Universal was now experimenting with dropping DRM, she said that she felt ERA still needed to make a stand because while "there are certainly experiments" the association feels "there's still a certain element of resistance within the music industry" and that "just puts consumers off".
The all-on assault on DRM by ERA is quite a landmark in the recorded music sector, marking the first time the retailers have so openly and widely criticised the record labels for their digital music policies. Asked by Music Week why they decided to speak now, ERA chairman Paul Quirk says the association's members felt it was time to be more proactive in this domain at their recent AGM, adding: "That was one of our objectives, to give the consumers what they want, how they want it, when they want it."