The “Break it Down” Blog

New York Times reports that Sony continues to lead the anti-DRM charge (did I just write that?!) and has announced that it will start offering DRM-free downloads of it music on Amazon’s MP3 service. The beauty of this decision is that Apple’s DRM-laden music from iTunes only plays on their associated iPod devices (and iPhone), but unless you go ripping the DRM out of the music yourself the only device you will be playing that music on is an iPod.

I love what Apple has done for this industry, namely:

1. Revolutionize the industry and make digital music/players ubiquitous
2. Create a monopoly in the market, pissing off competitors and labels
3. Continue using DRM when no one else wants it
4. Make the only advantage competitors could have over you to not use DRM
5. Start nurturing competition in the digital music market for non-DRMed music

I think we may actually get a sane market back in place here in the next 2-5 years.