It is just a matter of time before the Nokia Music Store (purchase per track) goes DRM free, but reports from Nokia's 'Comes with Music' launch in Singapore cite Adam Mirabella, Director of Global Digital Music Retail at Nokia, as saying DRM free music is also 'on the roadmap for the future integration of Comes With Music'. Clearly such a move is still some time away and the statement is not definitive, but it's a sign of how keen Nokia is to push its music offerings.
Read on in the full article.
Stuff all this DRM, it's too much hassle. I'll stick to ripping CDs.
Rafe - your article implies that Nokia will make the purchase of songs DRM-free quite soon, whilst maintaining the DRM-ness for those who have Comes With Music for some time after this. Isn't that quite a bit of hassle to maintain two systems - one with DRM and one without?
I'm a big fan of CWM even in its present form. If it went DRM-free then I'll be second in the queue for it.
Williamoni - I don't have any definitive information. But bare in mind the files for CwM are already different to the purchased song. CwM songs have more restrictions (e.g. you can't burn them to a CD and have more restrictive transfer rights).
I'm not sure whether this is maintained as two sets of files or not (in theory rights could be applied dynamically before download).
i.e. DRM-free files could be .wma - just without any restrictions. Though I imagine they would look to move to MP3 or eAAC+ in time.
So no I don't think this would be an issue.
DRM-free CWM does probably have an element I suspect might be a bit hard for most record labels to swallow (to allow).
With DRM-free single-track or album sales, a consumer has to pay for the track(s) before they are allowed to get access to the DRM-free file(s).
That fact is to some degree "throttling" how many DRM-free music tracks a single individual can download from any music service and redistribute illegally via some P2P system, if they decide they want to.
That way, if a single individual want to redistribute, say, 5 million music tracks (or whatever is the correct number offered by the CMW service by Nokia), they need to spend 4MEUR to buy those tracks, if they cost, e.g., 0.70EUR each to buy (5M x 0.70 = 4M). No too many individuals can afford to spend 4MEUR to buy digital music.
If a CWM phone would allow a single individual to access and download also (the same) 5 million music tracks DRM-free for the additional cost of, say 70EUR (markup above the device price without CWM + a couple of 1TB hard drivers where to store them), then that'd still be a whole lot (!) cheaper than 4MEUR for the individual to be able to access and start redistributing the 5 million music tracks on a P2P network. And that's what I think music labels might be allergic to regarding DRM-free CMW. (I don't know if they are, because I haven't been in any discussions with any record labels regarding CMW or DRM.)
And it is not entirely about music labels, it is also about the people who own the rights for the music and are entitled for some share of the sold music. And that is more complicated to negotiate than to settle with the labels; as there is also legislation that protects the rights owners.
I think removing the DRM will be very wise. The promise of free music for 1 year is not complete without being able to play it on any device. I wrote my opinion on the proposition here:
www dot gilka dot co dot uk/2009/03/08/nokia-phones-comes-with-music-but-not-with-what-users-really-need