EMI May Sell Recordings Online With No Anti-Copying Software
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EMI is said to have discussed proposals to sell unprotected files through an array of digital retailers, including Apple, Microsoft, Real Networks and Yahoo.
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(InfoWorld) - A German company is offering MP3 files for download, unencumbered by DRM (digital rights management). Instead, Akuma discourages copying by adding a unique "watermark" to each download. Major record labels have mostly chosen DRM to protect their copyrights, limiting the number of copies buyers can make of a downloaded track, and restricting the music players they can use to listen to it. However, Akuma is taking a softer approach: The music store sells MP3 files which can be played on almostÂ any digital music player, but adds a unique tag to each download using watermark technology from Germany's renowned Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits, which helped create the MP3 audio compression algorithm. The watermark technology makes slight changes to the data in sound files, such as a higher volume intensity in a tiny part of a song, that are undetectable by even the best trained ears, according to Fraunhofer researchers. However, if unauthorized copies of a download turn up on, for example, peer-to-peer file sharing networks, the watermark allows Akuma to identify the purchaser of a file and take action against them. "Around 40 percent of the labels we offer are embedded with watermarks," said Sascha Hottes, a managing director of H2 Media Factory, which launched Akuma. "This is the compromise we've reached with labels that are willing to release their titles in the MP3 format and not in Microsoft's Windows Media Audio format with its DRM technology." As part of its service, Akuma monitors songs embedded with a watermark against illegal distribution on P-to-P services, according to Hottes. "We monitor P-to-P networks on a random basis," he said. Around 350,000 songs, mostly from independent labels, are currently available on the Akuma portal, with 700,000 planned by the end of the year. The roster includes artists such as Katie Melua, Toni Braxton, Simply Red and Deep Purple. A single song title costs â¬0.89, ($1.13) an album â¬4.49. Customers have various payment options: online, direct debit, telephone invoice and PayPal. Akuma offers MP3 files in a quality similar to CDs, with bit rates (a measure of sound quality) from 192KbpsÂ at the low end to 320Kbps at the high end. Like eMusic.com, the German music download store hopes toÂ break into a crowded marketÂ by making song downloading a piece of cake. The German portal requires no special download software and places no restrictions on the choice of music player, including the iPod from Apple Computer. Customers can make as many copies of the songs as they like, burn them to CDs and transfer them onto multiple portable music players. TheÂ akuma.de portalÂ is now available in a beta version to registered users.
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Apple and EMI's agreement to offer DRM-free music tracks is unlikely to be threatened by the record label's changing ownership. In fact, say some analysts, the choice may have been a demonstration to potential investors of the company's forward-thinking ways.
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EMI, home to artists such as Robbie Williams, Radiohead and Norah Jones, reported explosive growth in digital music sales yesterday and said it was winning the battle against piracy.
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Cap offer comes with anti-piracy strings Internet radio broadcasters have claimed that a last-minute record company deal offered to them is a ruse to force them to use digital rights management (DRM) technology.â¦
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Meanwhile, take-over speculation mounts... EMI has signed a licensing and distribution agreement with Vidzone Digital Media to deliver the music giant's full DRM-free digital catalogue to mobiles and PCs via its cross-platform offering.â¦
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NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO  - Apple Inc.   Chief Executive Steve Jobs on Tuesday called on the four major  record companies to start selling songs online without copy  protection software to thwart piracy known as digital rights  management (DRM).
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Say what you want about the recording industry's take-no-prisoners approach to combating online piracy.  At least when the music czars go after someone, they target persons suspected of trading hundreds or thousands of copyrighted songs over the Internet.
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Internet users who illegally download music and films could face losing access to the web
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Universal Music Group has licensed songs from its stable of artists including U2 and Eminem to a company that has developed technology designed to prevent the unauthorized distribution of audio tracks over online file-sharing networks, a source familiar with the venture said.
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Arts & entertainment: Leading classical performer to offer digital download free of charge
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'NO copy protection - respect the music' stamped on !K7 discs
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By Jefferson Graham  LOS ANGELES -- Record labels have consistently rebuffed calls by digital music executives to sell songs online without copy-protection restrictions.
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Technologies that let people record satellite and Internet radio broadcasts digitally are opening a new front in the recording industry's war on music piracy. This has given the music industry a new problem to worry about.
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EMI and Sony BMG have reached a deal to get more music and other products distributed using the Internet in the US and Canada. The cooperation deal covers new DualDisc products, ring tones
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Apple Inc.   Chief Executive Steve Jobs on Tuesday called on the four major  record companies to start selling songs online without copy  protection software known as digital rights management (DRM).
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EMI Music and Snocap will announce that Snocap will sell the labelâs music in its MyStores, online shops that can be added to various sites on the Internet.