Universal Music Group announced that it will experiment with DRM-free music, offering songs that are free from copy protection between Aug. 21 and Jan. 31. UMG is planning to hawk its DRM-free wares, which will be available in a variety of bitrates and formats, at a bunch of non-iTunes digital-music outlets, including the coming-any-day-now Amazon music store and the “social commerce widget for gift-giving online” (whew!) gBox, which will have IE/Windows users driven its way by Google AdWords*.
Another store that’s missing from the laundry list being recited by business reporters this morning (Amazon, Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Rhapsody, Transworld, PassAlong Networks, Puretracks, gBox): the Zune Marketplace, which seems like an even more curious omission, given that UMG has a stake in keeping sales of the Zune afloat. (It’s certainly more mystifying than the iTunes snub, which is no doubt an extension of the tussle the two companies have had over pricing.) Anyone want to guess why they weren’t included in this restriction-free party?
UMG Ramps Up DRM-Free Testing [Billboard.biz]
* We got confused by the stories that listed “Google” as a retail partner; we’re guessing that was actually a reference to gBox that got truncated in editing.
The iTunes thing isn’t what surprises me at all: UMG has an childish love/hate relationship with Steve Jobs and they are always trying to play Alpha Male towards each other.
The shocking part (for me, at least) is that Universal is leaving Zune out despite Zune the fact that pays Universal a small fee from their devices…. and all the while UMG’s favoring Amazon’s music store – which doesn’t even exist yet.
If I were MS, I’d be very very pissed off.
Well played, Thug. Well played.
Seriously, I have to give him grudging respect: this is a diabolically clever move. In the Billboard story they’re acting like it’s a Pepsi Challenge between DRM and non-DRM, and that’s a clever, plausible way to spin what is obviously a fuck-you to Jobs.
I’m still rooting for the Thug to fail miserably, mind you. Between the Thug and the Asshole, I root for the Asshole every time, because he makes such pretty things.
@dennisobell: Why do you call Jobs “the Asshole”?
@Hyman Decent: I worship at Jobs’s feet as a technologist and a designer, and I’m an Apple customer of more than two decades. But every reliable report out of Apple says that he’s a nightmare to work for, a shameless credit hog, pig-headed (e.g., the long refusal to put out a two-button mouse) and tyrannical. His blog crackdown of a couple of years ago shows he can occasionally be on the wrong side karmically, and while I’m glad for Apple’s sake he escaped unscathed from the options-dating thing, he’s obviously at least a little bit guilty there. The whole reason the Fake Steve Jobs blog took off is that its withering, smart-ass tone reads exactly the way even Jobs’s fans (like me) think his mind works.
In short, he’s an asshole, but he’s my asshole. I root for him pretty much every time.
@dennisobell:
Agreed: Jobs is The Asshole. Strangely enough, I actually know a couple of people who work closely with him.
(This message was typed on a Mac.)
Well, I think it’s hilarious because iTunes gives you the biggest cut of money of most of the stores out there. The reason that labels like working with iTunes (besides the fact that it’s #1) is that it gives a huge cut. Amazon nickel-and-dimes you…hope that doesn’t translate to the music store.