In partnership with Sony BMG, Warner Bros and EMI, Sony Ericsson have announced the launch of PlayNow, an online music store to be stocked initially with one million DRM free tracks, and the goal of carrying up to five million tracks available to all of Europe by the end of 2009 (Washington Post and Sony Ericsson).
Read on in the full article.
How long can Nokia now sustain a DRM'd model? I wasn't particularly 'pro' or 'anti' when it first came out, not having had much experience of it; but having bought a few DRM'd tracks from the Nokia Music Store, I've found it to be an utter PIA. I stopped using it as soon as Play.com started doing DRM-free. Now I play my music however and wherever I want.
That's certainly a good question. However, one could.. no, has to ask whether creating a no-direct-revenue (see comments from SE itself) service by SE is sustainable either.. they are banking on DRM free music selling more of their phones, something that is not proven yet. I frankly still think most regular joe consumers don't care much whether the music is DRMed or not. Sure, mass consumers and people who actually care about durability of music do.
But doesn't that depend what Joe is doing with his music? He's going to run into problems as soon as he tries to stream it from his PC to his phone or re-formats his phone, or buys a new PC.
Of course. But the average Joe does not do any of those things very often and is therefore maybe not paying attention to such "little details" as DRM.
I'm sure Sony is adding this service not to earn profit from it but just to add another reason for people to keep buying SE phones. Look! I have the same service that competition is offering.