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Next Generation Perspective Vol. 1, Issue 12Product Type: Market Research ReportPublished by: Pyramid Research Published: April 2007 Product Code: R8-564 Description EVENT SPOTLIGHTOn April 2nd, music publisher EMI announced its decision to remove digital rights management from its catalog of music sold through Apple’s iTunes Store. The move came soon after Sprint had dropped the price of downloads at its Music Store to US$0.99—a response to pressure on MNOs to compete with iTunes on a per-track pricing model. EMI, meanwhile, undoubtedly felt the pressure on the music industry to remove DRM from digital content. While Apple is dwarfed by the potential scale of the mobile music opportunity, the company remains the dominant force in the market for digital music, warping others to its will. Table of Contents On April 2nd, EMI announced that it will be removing DRM from its entire back catalog. This decision came as no great surprise. Nonetheless, this marks a sea change in the way the music industry perceives DRM.Apple wins big with this particular deal: it gets the means to make money off both old and new content, plus access to a far greater audience than before. The move may also telegraph a shift in revenue strategy from hardware sales to digital content sales. The power of Apple’s iTunes was central to both Sprint’s pricing U-turn and EMI’s DRM-free adventure. Neither music nor mobile media players will escape iTunes’ gravitational field anytime soon. |
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