More audiobook publishers drop DRM: will Audible follow suit?

Following on the news that Random House Audio is dropping DRM on its audiobooks, both Penguin and Simon & Schuster Audio have announced DRM-free trials for their products. I really hope this means that Audible/Amazon will drop the DRM on its audiobooks now. I used to spend a fortune on Audible books until I realized that the DRM had locked me into iTunes (and had to spend a solid month unlocking my giant, paid-for audio collection when I switched to Linux).

As I've mentioned here, Audible's policy is that they'll only sell DRMed audiobooks, even if the publisher and author want to go DRM-free. That's not because Audible can't handle DRM-free files (they do some free/promotional stuff without DRM), but rather out of some ideological commitment to DRM. And since they're the exclusive supplier of audiobooks to iTunes, that means that you can only buy DRMed audiobooks through the iTunes store, despite Steve Jobs' claim that he wants to make the store DRM-free (he renewed Audible's exclusivity deal after making that announcement, though).

When Amazon bought Audible, they said they'd kill the DRM if they got enough public outcry against it.

Well, here's my promise: if Amazon drops Audible DRM and institutes sensible terms of service (something along the lines of "Don't break copyright law"), I will buy and blog an Audible audiobook here on Boing Boing once a week for six months. Link

See also:
Random House Audio abandons audiobook DRM
Amazon buys Audible, promises to kill DRM if we complain

• [barrymcw]

  Any idea if there’s an address/phone number we can use to contact Amazon/Audible to nag them to drop DRM?

  Audible does list a customer service telephone number but I wonder if there’s a more relevant way to contact them on this issue specifically?

  I’m more than happy to be a part of the “public outcry” Amazon lists as their precondition to dropping DRM.

• [FredKiesche]

  Now if only they would start dropping DRM from eBooks. Are you listening Amazon? Fictionwise? eReader (now part of Fictionwise)? Mobipocket (now part of Amazon)?

• [John Markos O’Neill]

  I just started a “Drop DRM” discussion on the Get Satisfaction page for audible.com.

  http://getsatisfaction.com/audible/topics/drop_drm

• [Jeff]

  Fredkieshe, have you sent an email to each one of those publishers, just to help them understand that their customers don’t want DMR?

• [PaulT]

  I can say without a doubt that Audible have lost many sales from me over the years as a direct result of DRM.

  My first MP3 player was a Creative Zen Touch. Audible’s DRM, for whatever reason, did not support this model although it supported most Creative players. Since neither my MP3 player nor my Linux laptop were supported by them, it was impossible for me to play back any of their content, so I didn’t buy it.

  That was several years ago. I would undoubtedly have bought a number of audiobooks from them had they allowed me to play them. Oh, I forgot, DRM is about “enriching” the customer experience…

  @Codeloss: Penguin were involved in the launch of eMusic’s DRM-free audiobooks but pulled out a few weeks later. The impression was that someone in upper management developed a sudden irrational fear of piracy and the books were pulled. I contacted Penguin at the time and just got back some marketing drivel about how they did that to improve their service. Idiots.

• [David Pakman]

  It’s true – Penguin had in fact signed on with us at eMusic at launch and we had their titles in our catalogue for about a week, although the NYT piece reads as though the publisher is newly coming on board. We’re excited to have them back and have some best-selling Penguin titles coming up which we’re excited to offer customers.

  At emusic, we only sell music and audiobooks DRM-free because, frankly, we think that is what consumers want. And if we offer something that consumers want, they’ll buy more of it, which is good for authors, artists, record labels, and publishers. We’re glad that so many labels and publishers are now supporting this consumer-centric approach.

  We think the audiobook market is only going to get bigger with eMusic and other retailers offering DRM-free files. In the meantime we’ll keep doing our part by knocking on doors and convincing more publishers and content owners to join the DRM-free party.

• [codeloss]

  So where are Penguin and Simon & Schuster selling their DRM free downloads? We should vote with our wallet and go buy some.

  Audible has had more than enough time to be consumer friendly and drop DRM — hopefully whatever competitor the publishers choose to sell their DRM free downloads at will eventually put them out of business.

• [Jeff]

  Codeloss, I’m telling you the King of Audible is under a dark spell, caste upon him by an evil cabal of lawyers that have convinced him that DMR is required.

• [Jeff]

  The thesis that DMR is the result of irrational fees generated by over-zealous protectors of copyright law (lawyers), supports my thesis that certain social parasites act in their own best interest, with little regard for the host. If DMR is the quickly-melting tip of the info iceberg, I suggest we speed the process along by penalizing lawyers for mucking up the works with their harmful memes. I’m not suggesting that we kill all the lawyers.

• [FredKiesche]

  “Fredkieshe, have you sent an email to each one of those publishers, just to help them understand that their customers don’t want DMR?”

  I have spoken to Fictionwise (the Pendergrast Brothers) who now own eReader.

  I’ve shown them the cold hard numbers…how much I spent at Baen Books vs. Fictionwise and eReader over the same period of time. Purchases at Baen keep going up…purchases at the other two sites went to zero some years ago and have stayed there.

  Response? None yet. It is possible that they would be happy to drop DRM schemes (certainly, a lot of the Mobipocket format stuff they carry doesn’t have any DRM on it) but they are constrained by the publishers.

  I heard from Rumor Control that 2008 is the year publishers drop DRM. Let’s see if it is true.