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Does the Canadian iTunes store carry DRM-free music?
iTunes Canada carries songs free of DRM?

After Googling this question a couple times, I thought I would make it easier to find the answer. The answer is yes, but not all songs. You can tell by the words “iTunes Plus” above the buy now button.

I found it particularly interesting that there was a button on the iTunes store homepage prompting me to “upgrade” to iTunes Plus. When I clicked it I was given the generous opportunity to buy the tracks AGAIN for a seemingly random price. For instance, I could upgrade the 12 tracks on A Perfect Circle’s Mer de Noms for $3.56, the 12 tracks on Audioslave’s Out of Exile for $3.00, and the 13 tracks on Matthew Good’s Avalanche for $2.40. At first, I assumed this was the new variable pricing model, but each track on each album was listed for $0.99 cents. So go figure.

I love the idea of DRM-free music. I just bought Mudvayne’s new album aptly titled The New Game, the first from iTunes since buying a vehicle with an MP3 player. However, it annoys me that I have to pay again to get the DRM taken off my existing purchases. Yes, I can strip the DRM myself, but that is a pain compared to just swiping the album via bittorrent.

Digital Music, Personal digital distribution, DRM, iTunes

Nine Inch Nails just release their new album The Slip as a %100 free download.

I might go so far as to say it is a %110 free download, given the extremely open set of formats it which it is available:

• High-quality MP3s (87 mb) – encoded with LAME at V0, fully tagged.
• FLAC lossless (259 mb) – CD quality
• FLAC high definition 24/96 (942 mb) – better-than-CD-quality 24bit 96kHZ audio
• M4A apple lossless (263 mb) – CD quality – will play in itunes.
• High definition WAVE 24/96 (1.5 gb) – better-than-CD-quality 24bit 96kHz audio

To add to the modernity of this release, all the the bigger packages are distributed via torrents. Therefore, they only pay to transfer a tiny file from their servers. That’s hella-smart.

There is also the option to order the super-deluxe, collectors CD/DVD and vinyl editions. Now THAT is value.

Trent Reznor is the One-Man-Show (in the studio, at least) behind NIN and has consistently driven the crest of the wave for the music industry. They have released their last several albums as free downloads, and for the Year Zero publicity, placed easter eggs URLs around the Internet, each with clues about the album. Fans were encouraged to compile the whole story in the NIN wiki.

They have also made some of their singles available as Garageband projects and full 24/96 Pro-tools sessions for fans to remix. Being a pro-audio geek, that is insanely cool. Check out the remix of “Only” that I built with Pro Tools.

What about video you ask? What about UGC? What about mobile? How about the new fan content gallery, the iPhone game, and 400GB of HD concert footage to play with.

Perhaps they could use an online Mashup Tool for that?

Digital Music, Media Technology compression, digital distribution, iphone, lossless, MP3, NIN, production, Trent Reznor, UGC

Although their points of view of the authors are very different, the content of their papers show some common ground. Dolfsma states, although ineffectively, that the Internet should be “free of copyright control” but the Carlson School of Management argues that the “enforcement of intellectual property (IP) rights… is crucial to the viability of online information based goods markets.” Both agree however, that intermediaries will play an important role in the future music business. Read more…

Digital Music, Media Technology, Social Media business models, consumer experience, digital distribution, market structure, music

The article The Move to Artist-Led Online Music Distribution: Explaining Structural Changes in the Digital Music Market (2005) by Jesse Bockstedt, Robert J. Kauffman and Frederick J. Riggins of the Carlson School of Management is an expository analysis of the future structure of the music industry and the role of digital technology players in the business value chain. The authors argue that current intermediary companies will have to reestablish their core competencies so that they reflect new value-added service potential created by digital distribution.

The article is effective in explaining potential applications of digital technologies over the proposed market structure, however some important technologies are not explored. The cost benefits of the proliferation of digital technology are based on a particular view of the future marketplace that is dubious. The authors also make subjective and non-evidenced assumptions and generalizations regarding the consumer. These deficiencies suggest a value judgment of traditional actors in the value chain. Moreover, the articles conclusions lack practicality due to the addition of an effective IP Rights Enforcement Body in the value chain as a significant contingency on which the rest of the proposed market structure is based. Read more…

Digital Music, Media Technology CD sales, digital distribution, Kazaa, music value chain, P2P, viral marketing

I am putting together a series of blog posts that originally started as essays I had written while at university from 2004 to 2006. One paper I wrote in 2005 was:

“The Future of Music Business, Law and Technology: A Critical Analysis of
Related Articles on the Topic of Digital Music.”

Quite a mouthful.

The related articles mentioned in the title were all written within a short time frame (2000, 2004 and 2005), yet also within three significantly different climates. The first was written before the explosion of Napster, the second at the height of Napster Mania, and the third just as the iTunes Music Store was gaining momentum.

I have decided to revisit the topics discussed in these papers and to reflect on the last several years. I wrote the first version of this paper before many had heard of Facebook, MySpace or YouTube, and well before they sold for billions (Facebook pending…). New bits are in bold. Read more…

Digital Music, Media Technology, Social Media digital distribution, Facebook, MySpace, Social Media, Social Networking