Down with DRM!
Michael Geist suggests that (in fact, has always suggested that) the music industry's DRM strategy is all wrong. He also suggests that Canada's copying levy on recordable media be abandoned. The reasons have always been the same: attempting to prevent people from copying content won't stop them from actually continuing to do so. The subtleties that command everyone's attention now aren't the reasons, but the numbers from the grand DRM-experiment. And the numbers suggest that it isn't working.
In fact, the other day I was looking to buy a digital copy of an album from an online music store -- a first. The problem with P2P is that it lacks breadth of content; the system gets saturated with what everyone is listening to; I couldn't find an entire copy of Matt Good's White Light Rock and Roll Review. I had turned to the numerous online stores only to find DRM standing in the way -- getting locked with AAC, or WMV or any other restriction on replaying the content just made the entire experience frustrating. It didn't help that I wasn't in Canada as one of the best, puretracks.com, didn't allow anyone from other countries to access the site. While anecdotal, this suggests that accessibility to the content trumps portability (pace the success of the iPod and iTunes).
In addition, the DRM strategy to compete with/overtake P2P-networks seems wrongheaded since I wasn't actually able to find a store that had Matt Good's album in their library; by focussing on DRMing what most can find on P2P-networks, online stores overlook members of the long tail expanding and/or servicing their musical interests -- people who are more than likely to pay for content not available elsewhere.
Until then, I'll have to listen to Matt Good's "Empty Road" on his site's mp3 player, which is of better quality than what I would find on a P2P-network.
