DRM May Be Dead, But It's Still Going to Cost You

Nearly two years ago, Steve Jobs published an open letter to the music industry calling for the death of DRM (digital rights management). He convinced EMI to ditch DRM back in April, 2007, but the three other major music labels held out. Until Wednesday. Now all the songs on iTunes are DRM-free, or soon will be.

And, with that, the DRM era of digital music finally can be put to rest. (Amazon’s MP3 store has been selling DRM-free tracks from all the major labels for a year now already). The labels were likely holding out for other concessions from Apple, such as variable pricing (which they got), and the Apple (AAPL) also thankfully convinced them to sell songs over cellular data networks to iPhones for the same price as they could get them on their computers.

But it looks like the labels prevailed in sticking it to consumers on one last point. Anyone who wants to upgrade their entire existing iTunes Library to DRM-free versions of the same songs, can conveniently do so with one click. But it is going to cost you 30 cents a track to do so. That’s right, you have to pay again for songs you already bought. Let’s see, 6 billion songs X 30 cents = $1.8 billion in potential upgrade fees. That’s a music tax, plain and simple. No wonder the music companies finally relented.

It still won’t save them.

Original post

Comments

[Jimbot:]

If you bought the songs originally with DRM, you purchased them with the knowledge that they were at a specific bit rate and that they had DRM. You now have the OPTION of purchasing the DRM-free version at a reduced price. It's an option, my friend. You can keep the DRM version you have, that you originally bought, and you are charged no additional fee.

If you buy a new car that costs $20k and the manufacturer comes out with a newer version with a better engine, would you expect them to give you the newer version for free? No. In fact, I doubt that they'd let you return the original car and just pay the difference in cost to get the new, upgraded car.

I think you are whining too much.

Jan 07 11:15 AM

[Anthony Dad...:]

DRM is gone !

I am glad. Its a huge positive for Apple and consumers. I want to hear my music when , where, and how.....also on whatever product I choose.

I paid for it right ?

I am a contributor on thecreatingwealthblog....

Jan 07 11:17 AM

[Ricaroo:]

The problem here is that to upgrade your old DRM songs, you have to upgrade all of them. You can not pick and chose which ones to upgrade. It is a all or nothing game. In my case, I have purchased 5882 song on iTunes since its inception - 5882 songs x .30¢ = $1764.80 - WOW! Now admittedly about half of those are DRM-free already - still that is a huge amount of money to get to where someone buying today is already getting DRM-free purchases from the get-go at the same price I originally paid.

And the argument about upgrading a car is just crazy, unrelated talk. This does not compare. Most software companies give you free upgrades to versions you have already bought, until there is a new version. Ok, it still the same 'ole song I originally bought - I deserve to have them upgraded for free.

Jan 07 12:01 PM

[Ricaroo:]

Ok Jerk (you made that too easy), I'll give you the car analogy if you want. However, upgrading digital songs is considerably easier that upgrading a car. It is not apples vs. apples, you can not compare an electronic upgrade to steel & mechanical manufacturing.

At 5882 songs, I feel I am a damn good customer of Apple iTunes and the record companies. Since most of my purchases were replacing old vinyl, the record companies have got me 3 times - original purchase, digital purchase and now DRM-free & quality upgrade. They should have been offering at least high quality all along, since it was DRM protected anyway. Most of my ire is directed at the record companies and the games they play. Apple is not the problem - however, they should offer an option to upgrade just the songs I want to upgrade and be able to stretch out my purchases. Upgrading all or nothing is not a good option.

Jan 07 01:53 PM

[Michael J.:]

Not 6 Billion potential songs... 20% - 25% of the library was already DRM-free; EMI's library and indies that chose to do so.

@Jerk: Software companies usually allow you to update their products for free, usually meaning bug fixes. However, you usually have to pay to upgrade to a new version, which is normally a fraction of the original price.

Over my lifetime, I've had to upgrade my music a few times and I was never offered an upgrade path as Apple does. From vinyl to cassette, and then to CD. Thank gawd I was able to rip my CD's and not have to repurchase that music all over again.

Here Apple is giving you the option of upgrading your music, so you can play it on any other device that supports AAC, which is most players today.

Jan 07 02:10 PM

[mollytjm:]

how many of us went from LP's (i actually had 'records'...78's from a classic collection my parents had and had to upgrade to LPs!) and cassettes, and CD's...no record company offered trade ins of discounts to do it...it was full price and when it came to CD's...REALLY full price!!

right now my $ at the itunes store is spend on APPS. wow! fun!

Jan 08 11:01 AM

[brewer:]

I can't hear much difference between regular and iTunes plus. And we still have LOTS of DRM on video files.

Jan 08 03:51 PM