Anything & Everything...

Looks like Steve Jobs is making John Lennon proud and trying to imagine a world without DRM'd music.

So if the music companies are selling over 90 percent of their music DRM-free, what benefits do they get from selling the remaining small percentage of their music encumbered with a DRM system? There appear to be none. If anything, the technical expertise and overhead required to create, operate and update a DRM system has limited the number of participants selling DRM protected music. If such requirements were removed, the music industry might experience an influx of new companies willing to invest in innovative new stores and players. This can only be seen as a positive by the music companies.

Given the recent Apple vs. Beatles agreement, I think the next chess move by Apple would be to offer the entire Beatles catalogue without DRM on iTunes. (Not sure if The Beatles' themselves or EMI owns the catalogue rights.) This latest Belin Wall will crumble fast.