Talking points on the issue of DRM

August 30, 2007

The Nokia N81 … not to be confused with the “Nokia iPhone” … at least not yet 🙂

Very interesting points were raised during the talk on Nokia digital music forum today. A lot of DRM issues were shed to light as well as new developments in the music industry. Most of these insights come from Sandy Monteiro who is the SVP for Digital Music, Universal Music.

Apple did a good job of marketing their “DRM free” music when in reality this isn’t truly the case. Having an artist’s name and title is DRM. The fact that Apple only made the download available in AAC format isn’t truly “DRM free” either. Making it available only in the iTunes Store is also a sign that this is not also truly “DRM free.”
A new technology is being explored to allow music sharing via Bluetooth or through other means. It involves having the fourth or fifth person paying only a fraction of the cost via wireless sharing (IrDA or Bluetooth) of what the original person had to pay when he or she downloaded the music. This is sort of like a “human Bit torrent” effect. Or the new pyramid scheme for DRM 🙂
In the future, music tracks can be remixed by anyone. Let’s say you have a Frank Sinatra song – you can rearrange the instruments (instead of wind instruments you can use strings) and then upload your version of the song to the Internet. The user community can then download the song and you get a royalty fee. The music tracks that participate in this program have the prior approval of the artists and the record label. Interesting?

These were some of the more interesting points raised for the future of digital music. What do you think?

Comments

7 responses to “Talking points on the issue of DRM”

August 30, 2007

green

“In the future, music tracks can be remixed by anyone. Letâ€™s say you have a Frank Sinatra song – you can rearrange … royalty fee.”
What’s the fucking incentive for Frank Sin atra to compose music if youre going to use his composition and earn money from it? fuckin’ slacker.
August 30, 2007

icezorg

“you can rearrange the instruments (instead of wind instruments you can use strings)”
i know a software that can do this, but on midi files only. it can even convert MIDI files to music sheets.
August 30, 2007

Jeric

@icezorg

I think that means completely recording the same song yourself with your own arrangement of the instruments. Well, I am not but that’s how I get it.

@Blog post

I thought when people said it’s DRM-free you could play and burn the cd numerous times without worrying whether that player / computer would play the mp3 or not because DRM-protected mp3s requires for a certain license or what just to play. Am I right or we’re talking about thee different meaning of DRM? Kinda confused! 🙂
August 31, 2007

chikasci

Hi po, i’m chika bugtas senior broadcast communication at UPd. i saw the link to your blog at yugatech. i’m doing a study about philippine podcasting. if you have time po, may i ask you to answer the ff questions po, kahit in bullet points lang po. you can email the answers at chikasci_bugtas@yahoo.com.ph

thank you so much for you time. god bless!

Name: (PODCAST LISTENER)
Age:
Degree:
Occupation:
Website:

1. Who introduced you to podcasting? How did you discover podcasting?
2. What are your favorite podcasts? Why? (Describe these podcasts)
3. What are your least favorite podcasts? Why? (Describe these podcasts)
4. How often do you listen to or download podcast sites?
5. How are you able to access podcasts?
6. Are you planning to put up your own podcast site? Why yes? Why not?
7. In what ways do you think can podcasting benefit the Filipino society?
8. Are there negative effects of podcasting to Filipinos? If yes, what are those?
9. Are you aware of any issues being thrown at podcasting? What are those? (Ex. Podcasting will kill radio broadcasting)
10. Whatâ€™s your personal assessment on the status of podcasting in the Philippines?
11. Do you think podcasting will click in the Philippines? Why?
August 31, 2007

Pika

Phones are getting more and more complicated!
I still prefer the simple ones like a V3X or my samsung U600. At least I still get to use other gadgets right? I’m not a big believer of the all-in-one market. hehe
September 2, 2007

spitfire

please expound on what was meant by drm free in “Apple did a good job of marketing their â€œDRM freeâ€ music when in reality this isnâ€™t truly the case.”

in their announcement, apple and emi said “With DRM-free music from the EMI catalog, iTunes customers will have the ability to download tracks from their favorite EMI artists without any usage restrictions that limit the types of devices or number of computers that purchased songs can be played on.” so i’m kinda confused about what you mean.

“Having an artistâ€™s name and title is DRM.” i don’t understand what you mean here at all.

and when you write that “The fact that Apple only made the download available in AAC format isnâ€™t truly â€œDRM freeâ€ either. Making it available only in the iTunes Store is also a sign that this is not also truly â€œDRM free.â€ it is misleading.

aac as a compression format is an internationally recognized compression/encoding standard and is not proprietary to apple. in the itunes store, you can buy emi songs encoded in aac with drm restrictions, or for $0.30 more buy the same emi song encoded in aac (at a higher bitrate) without the drm restrictions. so, as long as its an emi song, you do have the choice of getting it drm free from the itunes store. universal had the option to go the same route but did not choose to do so (just as they chose not to renew their contract with apple) for whatever reason they may have.

i just find it strange that a company like universal, which insisted on drm restrictions before allowing apple to sell music on their itunes store is now taking apple to task for having drm restrictions in their music.
September 2, 2007

Jayvee

hi spitfire.

the conversation about DRM was brought up during the talking points workshop for the Nokia Music Store launch. a journalist asked about how the “ill reputation” of DRM will work for the Nokia Music Store.

from what i gather, Sandy Monteiro was just being brutally honest about the issues of DRM — saying how even Apple managed to “hide” these through good marketing. if the music was DRM free, the Apple store could technically sell the music in any format – whether it be AAC, MP3, Ogg, etc.