Will Users Pay for DRM-Free Songs?
(Column) – Yesterday marked a historic day in the digital media space as EMI and Apple announced their decision to offer DRM-free songs for $1.29, a 30.3 percent incline in price over the previous $.99 price tag. For $.30 over the original price-per-song, EMI is doubling the audio quality in terms of kilobits from 128kbps to 256kbps AAC. Clearly, this is an excellent move for users, and hopefully for the involved companies as well. However, the real question remains: will users pay for DRM-free songs? I would like to believe so. If we want other labels to join online music stores in offering DRM-free songs, this has to work. This must work, for our sakes. Then again, this gives me a sinking feeling. The only reason DRM embedded songs made their way to online music stores was because of the supposedly serious piracy issue. Now that there are no restrictions with the songs, wouldn’t P2P networks proliferate with millions of songs? Absolutely! Welcome back to the Napster days! While mass sharing of songs will always be a threat, I think Apple and EMI could make it a success. Digital music stores are gaining mainstream acceptance, and people, who choose not to pirate, are finally used to paying for their songs. Back in the Napster days, there was no way for users to pay for a single song if they didn’t want the entire album. Online music stores have solved that problem. Therefore, it’s more likely that users will pay for DRM-free songs now. Not to mention, the price tag incorporates high enough margins that in order to make the Apple/EMI partnership a success, it shouldn’t take mass user adoption rate to make it successful. On the contrary, I suppose I understand the concern of piracy from the label’s perspective, but what they have to realize is that not all users are pirates. There are legitimate users who would like to pay for DRM-free songs despite the 30 percent incline in the price, albeit with better audio quality. Listen, do you [music labels] think we would be asking for DRM-free music for the sole reason of piracy? Of course, not! If all we wanted to do was distribute files over massive P2P networks, there are ways to strip the DRM off of the individual songs. So, music labels, let’s be a little mature about your user’s intentions. Why is the fact that we might be willing to pay for DRM-free songs such a difficult thing to believe? Do you really distrust us that much? As far as us, the users, willing to pay for DRM-free songs is concerned, this partnership should be a success. I’m not too thrilled about the added $1.29 price-per-song, but it’s a start. Hopefully, as other music labels join in with online music stores, we should see the price decline to $.99. I know it’s wishful thinking, but a guy can dream, can’t he? Check out the latest prices on Apple products at Apple.com!
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