Saw this mentioned on BoingBoing . . . .
We believe that most people like to be treated as customers and not potential criminals – DRM is easily circumvented and just puts obstacles in the way of enjoying music. Apple has even privately stated that they decided to use a weak form of DRM solely to get major labels onboard.
Finally, buying music through Bleep means that you are supporting the artists work, and in some cases you are getting mp3’s encoded by the artists themselves. After the bandwidth charges and Bleep running costs are subtracted, the artist gets half of the album or track price.
While the first part of that is interesting (it echoes a conversation Josh and I had some time back, and that I tried to work out a solution to here), I’m more interested in the second part. Someone — a small label, of course — is taking a chance on their customers. There are a few factors at work here. The artists on this label are not commoditized hit machines, and have a relationship with their audience that makes this less of a risk. Also, the label’s business folks are likely to have chosen their vocation and even the company itself out of a love of music, rather than just a way to make a living (or a killing, as the case may be).
I still think it makes more sense to let Apple, TiVo, et al, take small bites out of the DRM obstacle and let their (and our) position strengthen. It’s not like this is a big secret, but if we lose enough small battles out of “principle” we risk losing the war.
now playing: Love Song from the album Themes for Great Cities by Simple Minds
(this track was converted from an LP: it would be nice if the RIAA cartel would take the chance Warp is taking and release their back catalogs: but they love money more than music and have forgotten how to make one with the other, it seems).
[Posted with ecto]