08.06.07 - 04:59pm
The question of whether no DRM is working seems to be being answered and not favorably for the American music consumer.
EMI who was the first to go DRM free has just posted a massive drop in CD sales losing 19.8 percent in the last three months. The loss is being blamed on illegal downloads.
Total revenue for EMI has declined by 5.1 percent, even with a 26 percent increase in digital sales.
The drop reflects “the tough market conditions experienced in the recorded music market,” EMI said in a statement.
EMI was the first major music label to sign a contract with iTunes offering all their music DRM free on the site.
They have since been struggling more than the rest of the music labels. Most noticeably have been their extremely low CD sales in America.
EMI was taken over last week by a private equity firm Terra Firma Capital Partners for 2.4 billion.
Category: itunes | Tags: apple, drm, emi, free_music, itunes, music_labels, pirated-music | Be the First to Comment »
06.20.07 - 03:36pm
When EMI first agreed to sell DRM free music on iTunes there was much speculation as to whether there would suddenly be pirating galore but life for the music industry seems to have proceeded as normal, with the only different factor being that EMI’s DRM free music is ouselling the DRM music.
Senor VP of sales at EMI Lauren Berkowitz said, “The initial results of DRM-free music are good.”
Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon took away the bank with sales up 350 percent during the week of EMI’s iTunes launch and sales are still up 272 percent since going DRM free. Along with Floyd, Norah Jones “Come Away with Me” is up 24 percent, and Coldplay’s “A Rush of Blood to the Head” is up 115 percent.
There is still speculation that the high sales are just an initial craze of people hungry for DRM free music but EMI is confident the high sales will continue. If they do it may not be too long before the other major labels hop on the DRM free bandwagon.
Category: itunes | Tags: coldplay, drm-free-music, emi, high-sales, itunes, norah_jones, pink_floyd | Be the First to Comment »
05.21.07 - 10:18am
Amazon has announced that they will open their online music download store - DRM free!
Hoping to compete with iTunes, Amazon is joining the DRM free revolution by announcing they will only sell DRM free music in their new online MP3 music store to open later this year. With two of the largest purveyors of music going DRM free, record labels may be forced to go along with them.
Amazon only mentioned EMI signing with them, but they say that by the time their music store opens later this year that they will have DRM free music from over 12,000 labels.
They are trying to compete with Apple who is already selling DRM free music for $1.29 a download and the DRM protected for $.99. The big difference between the two is in the way their DRM free music is released. Apple only releases their DRM free music in AAC format which is not compatible with very many devices although works fine with the iPod. Amazon will release their songs in MP3 format which is compatible with all devices.
Category: itunes | Tags: amazon, apple, drm_free, emi, mp3-format-music_store | Be the First to Comment »
04.24.07 - 10:49am
Recently the talk has been that Apple has full control of upcoming talks with the “Big Four” - the major music labels renegotiations. Apple is expected to make more demands for DRM free music and with control of over 80% of the digital market they do have a lot of power in the negotiations, however recent news that Amazon is launching its own DRM free online music store next month may provide enough competition to leave Apple out in the cold.
There has already been speculation that Universal may sign with Amazon to allow their music to be purchases DRM free.
Why Amazon instead of Apple - Amazon is more likely to allow varied pricing giving the record labels what they want - more money. Apple has stuck to its .99 cents a download for all music irregardless of popularity, although they recently went up to $1.29 for EMI’s DRM free music. However this may still not be enough for the record labels who want control over pricing of their music.
Category: apple, itunes | Tags: amazon, apple, drm-free-music, emi, itunes | Be the First to Comment »
04.20.07 - 12:33pm
CD sales lost over 13 percent of their revenue in 2006, and digital music sales jumped 60 percent, with album sales up 103
percent. This puts record companies in a bit of a rock and a hard place in upcoming negotiations with Apple over music contracts coming up this next month. With such an exorbitant loss of music sales, record companies need to find a way to make money selling the music digitally. With Apple controlling over 80% of a market that the record labels desperately need, the record labels may forced to play into Apple’s hands when the contracts hit the tables
Apple clearly will be fighting for DRM free music and since EMI has already signed up to have all their music DRM free the record labels hands have already been called, without even getting a chance to fight for Apple’s Fairplay to be opened up with DRM still in place.
Category: apple, itunes | Tags: apple, cd_sales, drm, emi, music_contracts, record_labels | Be the First to Comment »
