Slowly but surely . . . .
Warner Music has announced that it will begin to sell non-DRM’ed MP3 music files on Amazon, making it the third (of four) major labels to sign up for DRM-free distribution of their music, Universal and EMI being the other two. [From Warner to sell no-DRM MP3s on Amazon]
I was looking to buy an album the other night and was able to compare the price/quality at iTunes and Amazon. Amazon won. The tracks were no cheaper but the quality was better (at 256kbps vs 128) and the album price worked out to be less. The DRM business is not something that keeps me up at night, but all things being equal, I’ll take the tracks without it. And when the quality is worse, there’s no reason to consider DRM-encumbered material.
The ball is in Apple’s court to make the quality/price issue go away and get rid of the remaining DRM holdouts. The only reason it matters to them is that it puts them in an arms race against their own customers, on behalf of the record manufacturers. Why would anyone want to be their proxy?