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Amazon to Go DRM Free… the Myth of the Information Wants to be Free Wonderland

By cosmic coincidence, while I was writing about terminally sketchy MPFree.com this AM, Amazon went and announced the forthcoming opening of their own DRM-free music store.

1. Amazon claims 12,000 labels have signed up to sell MP3’s, including EMI - interesting that APPL didn’t lock EMI to an exclusive.
2. Bezos summed up the value proposition: Amazon customers will know that their music will play anywhere without any difficulty.
3. The EMI CEO suggests that DRM-free will still be a “premium” offering - expecting slight price bump and higher quality, as per iTunes.

Analysis

Amazon lends credibility to the charge begun by Steve Jobs. The proof will be in the profits, however: regardless of how many names are behind the DRM-free agenda, the labels will need to see increased sales volume, increased margins, and increased profit to make it stick; anything less than the volume/margin/profit trinity will send them scurrying away again to try and come up with another way to make it happen.

Whether there is another way is debateable, of course, but that doesn’t matter to the industry execs - its the ability to put out shareholder-pleasing press releases about new bound-to-be-profitable technologies & business models that keep them motivated.

One unfortunate thing is that “DRM-free” has been elevated to a near-mythical ideal where gleeful customers shovel cash voluntarily at labels in a magical “information wants to be free but I respect artists” wonderland - will such a place exist? Only time will tell. The pessimist in me says no; how many people out there downloaded MP3’s from P2P services and then went to buy the CD out of respect to the artist? Zero. Respect for artists is balanced out against the ridiculuous wealth flaunted by upper echelon musicians - would the average consumer feel too bad keeping a few cents out of U2 or Madonna’s pockets? No. Do many people have artistic “respect” for Britney Spears? The “struggling-to-break-through” artists will be the most marginalized financially, but will enjoy the promotional boost of unfettered distribution….

…of course, struggling artists have other, better means of self promotion these days than signing with labels anyway.

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