All the Norah Jones You Can Handle
Have you ever taken on the task of providing the soundtrack for an event -- say, a bachelorette party -- and headed to iTunes to get all the requisite Justin Timberlake, OutKast, Kelly Clarkson, and Nelly Furtado tracks to jam that party right? And then, purely hypothetically, did you maybe think that making a copy of said mix would make an excellent gift for the dozen attendees, only to be met with a message from iTunes warning you that you just can't burn the song you purchased that many times? My friend, that's because you ran into DRM, or digital rights management -- basically, rules encoded into your download that regulate how, where and how often you can use what you've purchased. Well, one record company has decided to ditch the DRM, offering higher-quality downloads sans rules on iTunes for $1.29 each (instead of the typical $.99 per song). Will other record companies follow suit? Does one record company without a lot of big singles really have the power to turn the industry around? And what does this mean for consumers?
1:56 PM ET | 04- 3-2007 | permalink
