Variety.com – Yahoo tests ‘Right’ to MP3 downloads:
In a first for mainstream pop music, Yahoo! will sell Jesse McCartney’s new album “Right Where You Want Me,” from Disney-owned Hollywood Records, in the unprotected MP3 format.
“We’re trying to be realistic,” said Ken Bunt, senior VP of marketing at Hollywood Records. “Jesse’s single is already online and we haven’t put it out. Piracy happens regardless of what we do. So we’re going to see how Jesse’s album goes (as an MP3) and then decide on others going forward.”
“We think this is a really good experiment, because copy protection is not doing anything to stop people from stealing when you can just get unprotected tracks off of a CD or get music illegally online,” said Yahoo! Music topper Dave Goldberg. “We think it’s good to make it easy for consumers to get digital music on whatever device they want and for companies like us to not be reliant on one particular technology company for how our consumers can access music.”
Because Apple doesn’t license the copy-protection technology behind iTunes, musicstores like Yahoo!, Napster and Rhapsody that want to sell major-label music have to use Microsoft’s alternative.
EMusic is currently the only online musicstore that sells songs in MP3 format, but it specializes in indie music and doesn’t have any major-label tracks.
It believe this is where the future for the digital music market lies. Somehow, the RIAA feels it’s impossible to compete with “free as in free beer” products, but in my view it is not. If content can be distributed in a more comfortable way -for instance via a virus-free platform- people will be willing to pay a fair price for it.
bodo — December 31, 2006 @ 5:11 pmI agree. RIAA may think it is impossible to compete with free alternatives, but it does not have any other choice. It is though when you do not trust neither your customers nor that your product is worth enough to deserve a fair treatment from consumers.
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