Good tidings, digital music fans! Reuters reports that Insound has finally committed to selling its awesome catalog in downloadable format. Full albums only (no propagating of a "singles" culture here), but most importantly (and like eMusic), we're talking unprotected, shareable MP3s (i.e. no "DRM," or digital rights management). This means no major labels will want to play with Insound, but that doesn't bother us much, and more importantly, it means we'll be cranking to indie jams regardless of portable music device.
Insound is embracing a user-friendly attitude, but also one that many industry insiders say is essential for the growth of a flat digital download market. Yahoo Music general manager David Goldberg told Reuters:
The notion that a track I buy in DRM is protected and one without DRM isn't is a fallacy. It's all nonsense. Music is never going to be protected, and anybody who tells you that is not being honest. Yes, you can put up speed bumps, but the people who really want to steal music are going to steal it. So you're just making it hard for people who want to do the right thing to get the music they legitimately purchased on the devices and services that they want.
He went on to state that this situation "only serves to dissuade consumers from buying music legally and instead keeps unauthorized peer-to-peer services in business."
Yahoo really "gets it," huh? There's something to their line of thought, but we have to question some of their suppositions. Sure, we avoid obtaining records from iTunes in favor of a source of unprotected MP3s (for prospective sharing purposes), but that "source of unprotected MP3s" is often a free one.
Would you be more prone to buy your digital music if it were unprotected? And would your purchases put illicit torrent-trading and peer-to-peer sites out of business? Questionable, that. It's sure to help those stalled digital download figures, but who's got a better deal than free?
But Yahoo is intent on proving their theory, so they're offering Jesse McCartney's new album in both protected and unprotected formats and at the same price. 'Cause Jesse McCartney fans are all about posting the hot tracks on their typepads and blogspots.
Yup, Yahoo totally gets it.
