DRM, or Digital Rights Management Software, in reference to iTunes music files, is used to limit the number of times that the file can be copied. The intent of DRM is to prevent piracy (even though no one would pirate AAC audio files anyway, but thats another story..). There are plenty of legitimate reasons to want to copy a song file more then a few times. For example you may want to make backups just incase your computer crashes, or you may get new devices that you would like to place your song on.
It is a good step for EMI (which is part of the Big Four record companies that run the RIAA), but I do not think it will improve their sales much. In addition to raising quality and removing DRM technology they also jacked up the price to $1.29 per song. It works out to be around the same cost as a CD, yet you have no physically produced copy. It would be nice to see more and more companies selling DRM free audio files, although a drop in price is realistically the best approach.
Link to Arstechnica story by Eric Bangeman
The music companies, facing a long-term decline in sales, had resisted freeing up their digital songs from restrictions because they were afraid consumers would make numerous copies that would deprive the companies and their recording artists of revenue.New York Times
But peer-to-peer Internet sites that freely trade music files have flourished anyway, with five billion downloads last year, compared with 509 million songs downloaded from official digital music services, according to the NPD Group.
Entertainment Companies need to realize that they cannot run their business the same now in the Digital Age, as before. Their loss of sales is from their inability to adapt to new technology soon enough. They resist change compulsively, however with DRM-free music they may be moving in the right direction.
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