Talking of DRM-free music, the UK's Entertainment Retailers Association has welcomed the announcement last week that SonyBMG was signing up to the DRM-free revolution, meaning all record companies are now making their digital catalogues available without digital rights management technology.
ERA became a vocal advocate of DRM-free music last year, believing that the unpopularity of DRM and the issues regarding device interoperability attached to DRM were holding back the growth of the digital music market (not the mention stopping their online members from competing with market leader Apple, who have the monopoly when it comes to selling DRMed music compatible with the dominant iPod).
Commenting on the recent industry-wide embracing of DRM-free music, ERA Director General Kim Bayley told CMU: "SonyBMG's decision to back MP3 is great news for music fans and the music market. DRM has clearly hampered the growth of the download market. The success of the compact disc was based on the fact that every CD played in every CD player. It has been clear that downloads could never reach their true potential until they were available on a universally-compatible open format. We welcome SonyBMG's recognition of this fact".
Of course recent announcements by SonyBMG and Warner that they were signing up to Amazon's MP3 platform were restricted to the US - Amazon's digital music service currently being only available in North America. With that in mind, Bayley called on the majors to go DRM-free in the UK as soon as possible, adding: "Now that the principle has been established that MP3 is the way forward, it is vital that UK music fans do not get left behind. We are on the verge of a great boom in download sales, but this can only happen if the music is available".