Andre Yoskowitz
19 Mar 2007 19:10
One of the largest online music stores in Europe, Musicload, owned by Deutsche Telekom has recently come out against DRM on account that it has negative effects on the marketplace and the service's customers.
In an open letter distributed last week by Musicload, the company said it was having constant problems with DRM, so many that 75% of its customer service calls were the result of some sort of DRM-related problem.
As told by Musicload, "DRM makes the use of music quite difficult and hinders the development of a mass-market for legal downloads." Musicload is saying that DRM is unfair to the customers and also prevents competition between rival music services.
Musicload is in a heated competition in Germany against Apple's iTunes music service which also does not offer DRM-free music.
In December, Musicload began to allow independent music labels to sell their music on the service without DRM and Musicload has reported that artists that chose to drop DRM saw a 40 percent increase in sales since that time., and that more artists and labels are showing interest. Musicload hopes to see DRM-free MP3's make a comeback in the near future but major labels have dropped little hint that that is a reality.
Source:
Arstechnica