Will EMI be the first to fall?
February 9, 2007 by FredSteven P. Job’s heart to heart about DRM certainly drew the ire of some in the recording industry; but perhaps it is a bit premature to assume all of the big 4 would really react in concert to calls for the end of copy protection. There are now rumors that EMI is considering selling its catalog DRM free. From the NYTimes this afternoon:
The EMI Group, the British music giant, has been considering a plan to offer a broad swath of its recordings for sale online without anti-copying software, executives involved in discussions with the company said.
EMI, of course, is issuing the standard non-denial denial of “no comment.” EMI has also been one of the most open minded about selling Mp3s, as they had experimented with selling Norah Jones and Jessica Simpson earlier this year.
One wonders how the other 3 labels will attempt to compete with EMI while still selling DRM’d music.