Apple Drops DRM From iTunes Music, But What We Need Are DRM Free Videos

Today, Apple announced at Macworld that by the end of the first quarter, all songs in their catalog will be DRM free. While that's nice, but not really that big of a deal, the real question is when DRM free videos will be made available?

Lets face it, most folks who buy music from iTunes only want to play it on an iPod anyway and are not moving the content around to many other devices. Music is not what's driving the growth of the Internet, new applications, or bandwidth consumption. It's all about video. If Apple really wants to push the market forward and help video consumption explode, it needs to convince content owners that offering DRM free videos would help jumpstart the industry. New business models would be created overnight and consumers would be happy, which means they would buy and consume more content. We'd see an amazing amount of growth in just a year's time.

For all we know, Apple is already doing this and trying to convince content owners of the need for DRM free videos. But until the day consumers can buy content once and move it to any device they want, the market for purchasing video content won't see the kind of growth that many of us in the industry have been waiting for.

Comments

[Jason Deadrich]

Very well said, completely in agreement. We have been selling DRM-free videos at http:/www.clickwrestle.com since 2002. We keep an eye on piracy sites and video-sharing sites and have not had a major issue with theft of content in the 7 years we have been in operation. Keep paid content easy to view and transfer and you will keep your users happy.

[Christopher Levy]

Dan,

How does going DRM-free kick start the market? You admit in your post that most people that buy movies from iTunes watch them on their iPod so what does dropping DRM do for the content owners in that case?

You seem to make some broad assumptions about DRM that are somewhat off here. Where would this proposed growth come from? What new business models will this enable?

Have you done any research on iPod users and how many other video devices they own beyond their iPod? We have and the results aren't suprising. iPod users watch video on their iPods. Very straighforward.

These types of posts need to be founded in facts. Look at the XBox video marketplace. How did DRM prevent them from becoming the #1 video portal on the web? How did iTunes sell so many videos with DRM ??

The answer is that DRM is and never has been an issue when it relates to selling physical media. You cannot look to the music industry or iTunes as the bellweathers for where this industry is headed.

Regards,

Christopher

[Dan Rayburn]

As a consumer, I would buy videos online if I had the ability to watch them on any device I wanted and could transfer them, burn them or copy them as I see fit. If I wanted to watch the same piece of video on my iPod, Vudu and XBOX 360 I now have to buy and pay for the same video three different times. You wants facts, that's a fact.

I've never once bought a single piece of online video content for that very reason and we've seen plenty of folks like Movielink and others go under which is a testament to the idea that they are not listening to consumers.

I would buy content if I could do with it as I wanted. I know I am alone in that and if many others like me all started spending money on content, you'd have new business models emerging almost overnight.

[Cheap Computers]

I think this news would be more appreciative that DRM is free from the iPod and the DRM would be available soon as mentioned above all the thing will be done accordingly but the patience is the main requirement..........