Apple of my eye
Apple recently announced at the All Things Digital Conference that iTunes now sells DRM-free songs.
Why is this important? It is the first time that a major music label has agreed to sell music online in a DRM-free format. EMI is the first to respect music listeners and sell non-DRM-crippled music through iTunes. The other music companies and other media companies have been afraid of doing this for years. Now, the other media giants see EMI as a test case. Without risking anything themselves, they want to watch EMI’s success in selling music without crippling DRM.
This experiment needs to succeed for the good of all consumers. We need EMI to make money off of its agreement with Apple. If it fails even due to natural business cycles, you can be sure that other corporations will forever point to the EMI experiment as a justification for Draconian DRM. Music, television shows, games, and even the hardware in your computer is on the verge of being locked down tight with this DRM: digital crippling technology. Success is necessary to point to as an example that trusting consumers yields better value for everyone: artists and listeners.
So, go out and purchase the DRM-free music on iTunes right now (or Amazon as soon as they release their version). Just download iTunes version 7.2 and purchase the premium versions of songs. Buy whole albums: you get music videos, cover art, and a small discount! Just go and buy songs.
Full Disclosure: I bought Apple stock (AAPL) this morning, before the 4% jump ;-). I owned Amazon stock last week.
[?]