One small step for a record company, one major leap for music-kind? Mmm, we'll see I guess. SonyBMG are letting Yahoo sell digital copies of Jessica Simpson's new single 'A Public Affair' without any digital rights management technology embedded in the music file.
The move goes against a core digital music policy held by all four major record companies since pretty much the internet was invented - that digital music must be sold in formats that are 'protected', so that there are technical controls in place that govern where a file can be played, how many times it can be copied, and how, if at all, it can be shared with others. Most of the major download platforms, iTunes included, sell music in DRM-protected formats. But those who oppose the use of DRM, which includes most independent labels, argue that such technology adds to the costs of digital music and pisses off consumers without really delivering any extra safeguards to the music industry (every DRM is, after all, pretty easy to hack in one way or another). It also increases the power of IT firms like Apple because the only way to make available music files with DRM that work on iPods is via iTunes - but if you forego the DRM requirement, then anyone can sell music in the iPod compatible MP3 format.
SonyBMG making the Jessica Simpson track available via Yahoo as an MP3 may not be part of a wider change in policy, however, because the track is part of a special promotion which enables fans to buy the track in one of 500 varieties - each one name checking a different Christian name (ie you buy the one that name checks your name). The nature of the promotion, and the fact tracks are selling for double the usual rate - $1.99 - might have motivated the decision to go with MP3 rather than a DRM-ed music file.
Nevertheless, the anti-DRM brigade will be hoping the move represents a change of heart in the major record companies regarding the necessity of only selling tracks with digital rights management technology embedded, a change of heart that could revolutionise the digital music space.
Certainly Ian Rogers of the Yahoo Music Blog seemed pleased with SonyBMG's participation in the Simpson promotion: "We've been publicly trying to convince record labels that they should be selling MP3s for a while now. DRM has a cost. It's very expensive for companies like Yahoo to implement. We'd much rather have our engineers building better personalization, recommendations, playlisting applications, community apps, etc, instead of complex provisioning systems which at the end of the day allow you to burn a CD and take the DRM back off, anyway."