Microsoft dropping DRM from Zune Music Store

Microsoft says that it's dropping DRM from some of the catalog in the Zune store. This is the other shoe-drop we've all been waiting for since Apple announced last week that it would sell the entire EMI catalog (albeit at a 30% higher price) without DRM through the iTunes Music Store. Interestingly, Microsoft seems to be implying that it's going to sell DRM-free tracks from labels other than EMI.

"The EMI announcement on Monday was not exclusive to Apple," said Katy Asher, a Microsoft spokeswoman on the Zune team, in an e-mail to the IDG News Service today. She said Microsoft has been talking with EMI and other record labels "for some time now" about offering unprotected music on its Zune players in an effort to meet the needs of its customers.
"Consumers have made it clear that unprotected music is something they want," Asher said. "We plan on offering it to them as soon as our label partners are comfortable with it."

Link (via The Inquirer)

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Anonymous

Brilliant move!

Just two comments I would like to make.

1. we also want album liner notes for all albums purchased from the zune marketplace! Make purchasing music downloads trully worth our while!
Base these liner notes on vinyl rather than small CD’s. That was the only fault that the public ever had with compact disks (the small size of liner notes). Make them big and make them true! Music is a product of art! (Think about Dark Side Of The Moon!).

2. I just wanted to say that it was a good move blocking mp3 transfers over new versions of msn. Everybody that I’ve ever known would rather do that than buy a download of a single (since it’s free and they don’t care).
P2P and msn have been the main reasons that music sales have been falling :( We need these independent labels to make money so that they can pay the salaries of staff in their offices, pay the bands, and even more importantly so that they can find more bands for us to enjoy!

Best wishes and Good luck with your product!

From a true music fan!