According io Bloomberg, EMI (Records) pulled out of negotiations with the major digital music stores designed to release their catalogue of music without DRM restrictions. Aparently the sticking point is the size of an advance payment the retailers would pay the label.

Evidently, EMI doesn’t get it. The advance payment was demanded by the label to offset loses due to releasing unencrypted music files.

In the mean time, you can still purchase quality music free of DRM nonsense from the Fake Science Music Store. w00t.

In the March 8th issue of Rolling Stone, it was reported in their R&R section that “embattled label EMI tests downloads of unprotected MP3’s with new Norah Jones album.” Over the last year EMI has experimented with unprotected music, most recently releasing Norah Jones single Thinking About You as an MP3 on Yahoo!.

“I’m not allowed to release numbers, but it’s done very well,” says Yahoo! Music general manager David Goldberg. Not Too Late has sold 400,000 copies in it’s first week and having an unprotected MP3 doesn’t seem to have hurt album sales. David Parkman of eMusic weighs in.

Selling major-label MP3’s will be an overnight success. The music industry needs to have hundreds of digital retailers competing on the merits of selling music at a good price with great service.

EMI appears to be eager to take a positive step after big layoffs resulting from the merger of Virgin and Capitol and may make an announcement in a matter of days. Warner Music Group CEO Edgar Bronfman Jr. is still towing the same company line with the comment that music should be afforded the same copy protection as software, films or video games. However, many analysts think that the rest of the industry will eventually come around to unprotected MP3’s. While many may be digging in their heals now Goldberg points out that “they say a lot of things that they have to change their minds on. Things change quickly.”

Indeed. It seems like the times are a changing.

The gawkers at Gizmodo have called for a boycott on the RIAA for the month of March.

They recommend:

1. purchasing music from non-RIAA represented labels, through perhaps, Fake Science Music Store.
2. purchasing music from RIAA represented bands only at their live shows.
3. generally giving the big Fuck You to the industry’s out of control trade group by speaking with your wallet.

On a side note, it was nice of Diana Ross to do a sitting for the campaign poster, but christ…

XM and Sirius satellite radio have announced their plans for merging the two companies. As with any merger, this is just the announcement phase which means they have an agreed upon contract and they are starting to seek government approval. Until all the ducks are in a row (both internally and externally) they will/have to act as separate companies.

This is a pretty massive merger, especially because they are currently the only two players in the national arena.

Combining Sirius and XM would result in a single satellite radio operator with more than 12 million total subscribers. A deal would also marry Sirius content, such as Howard Stern, Frank Sinatra and Nascar with XM’s Oprah Winfrey, Bob Dylan and Major League Baseball.
– Heavenly Deal by Peter Lauria

An interesting article published yesterday (2/15/07) in BetaNews reports that most European Music executives agree with the blog Steve Jobs posted on DRM.

As usual, the article is full of statistics which usually hurt my head. Bottom line is that half of executives who produce records (give or take according to the sample group) agree with Steve Jobs that DRM measures are “overly restrictive” and 62% agree that dropping DRM would drive consumer adoption of downloadable digital music.

It should also be noted though that the same execs are not exactly ready to drop the restrictions until something better comes along.

I will say this about Steve’s blog. It had been thought provoking to say the least. On the one hand we have the record company’s fear of loosing revenue. They want to protect their wares. That’s a given. And while digital sales is, according to Steve, only 10% of the total, DRM to them represents the future. CD sales are dropping every year, that’s a fact. How long before they become as boutique as vinyl? The one thing the record companies have never been good at is anticipating new technology and the impact it will have on their business, so they are grasping at whatever solution they can as long as it serves to protect revenue. While I don’t agree with this premise, I do understand why they are afraid. The problem is, the consumer is the one hurt the most by this tactic.

On another hand, you have Apple who appears to be implementing DRM only because they have to and want to guard their technology because they don’t want to be responsible for the system being hacked if FairPlay becomes an industry standard. That’s also understandable. Implementing security measures in software is a royal pain in the ass and being in a situation where they have to chase the tail — much like Microsoft has had to do with Windows — is not an attractive one. But lets be real. That decision has a lot to do with selling iPods and one thing anyone who has watched Apple over the years knows is Steve doesn’t want to share. He wants to keep all of his toys to himself. Again, the consumer is the one most affected by the lack of interoperability between systems and devices.

I applaud the European governments who are pushing this issue by declaring that Apple must open up their system or stop doing business in their counties. This is a bold move that will have far reaching consequences for not just Apple, but the music industry as a whole. One way or another the matter must be addressed and it will be interesting to see which way the pendulum swings.