Get Better Gear!

Premier Sponsors

TechRestore

Other World Computing

Top 5 Free Apps

Release Date: August 05, 2009
Genre: Games
Release Date: May 22, 2009
Genre: Games
Release Date: August 29, 2009
Genre: Games
Release Date: March 27, 2009
Release Date: August 07, 2009

iTunes New Music Releases

Release Date: September 29, 2009
Genre: Rock
Release Date: September 20, 2009
Release Date: September 15, 2009
Release Date: August 25, 2009
Genre: Rock
Release Date: August 25, 2009

Top 5 Paid Apps

Release Date: April 22, 2009
StickWars $0.99
Release Date: March 31, 2009
Genre: Games
Bloons $0.99
Release Date: April 05, 2009
Genre: Games

Discover New Music

  • Music Has The Right To Children

    • 10 out of 10
    • Boards of Canada
    • This one will haunt you. From the first notes to the last, their sound surrounds you. BOC has put out a fantastic catalogue, and this album is a great starting point for a new listener. Jump straight
  • An Evening with George Shearing & Mel Torm�

    • 10 out of 10
    • Mel Torm� & George Shearing
    • Of the three men who taught me how to sing, the last was Mel Torme. Apparently, Mel Torme is a joke to anyone more than a decade older than me, a living parody of a Vegas crooner. But I stumbled on th
  • De Nova

    • 10 out of 10
    • The Redwalls
    • Wow! Perhaps my 5-star rating is simply because the Redwalls are not only new and fresh (none of them older than 22!), or perhaps its because -- despite their ages -- they are able to totally capture
  • Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

    • 8 out of 10
    • Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
    • When I first got hooked to Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, the only place I could get their debut album, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, was through the band's Web site. I listened to the two tracks a

  • The Stooges

    • 8 out of 10
    • The Stooges
    • Another pillar of my musical foundations, The Stooges' first album is one those records whose influence far outweighed its popularity. Like The Velvet Underground & Nico, hordes of people wh

Reader Specials

Visit Deals On The Web for the best deals on all consumer electronics, iPods, and more!

News

Universal Goes DRM-free Without Apple

Universal Music Group has joined EMI in experimenting with DRM-free music downloads, but unlike EMI, will be going without Apple and the iTunes Store. Instead, the label will offer its copy protection free tracks through other online music services, according to the New York Times.

DRM-laden tracks from Universal are still available at the iTunes Store, but the copy protection free versions will appear at other sites including RealNetworks, Wal-Mart, and Amazon. The decision to snub the iTunes Store may be an attempt by Universal to strip away some of the control Apple has over the music download industry.

Apple is seen as the market leader for legit music downloads with over 70 percent of the market in its pocket. The company has imposed tight controls over song pricing despite recording industry efforts to raise song prices and force Apple to switch to a music subscription model.

Music distributers have been trying to find new ways to increase revenue ever since CD sales began to drop a few years ago. Labels have been pressuring for higher per-track pricing and subscription schemes, even though consumers don’t seem interested in higher song prices and what amounts to music rentals.

When EMI announced that it would offer DRM-free tracks through the iTunes Store, Apple agreed to raise prices for those songs from US$0.99 to $1.29 -- but the EMI tracks are also encoded to offer higher quality sound, too. While Apple has said that it is willing to offer the same deal to other labels, Universal does not appear to be interested, and has even gone so far as to refuse to renew its annual contract with Apple in favor of a month-to-month agreement.

Should Universal’s experiment with DRM-free songs not pan out, the company has a built-in escape plan. It has already stated that the test program will only run through January 2008.

Post Your Comments

  Remember Me  Forgot your password?

Not a member? Register now. You can post comments without logging in, but they'll show up as a "guest" post.

Commenting is not available in this section entry.