What’s DRM you ask? DRM stands for Digital Rights Management. It’s basically a security measure built into the digital music you buy from such online stores as iTunes, URGE, Zune, Napster, Rhapsody, and almost every other big name online outlet that prevents you from sharing your music willy nilly with every Tom, Dick and Harry.
Steve Jobs , leader extraordinaire of Apple Inc., has posted his “Thoughts on Music” over at Apple Hot News, and he’s got some revelatory stuff to say, so I’d recommend you go give it a read by clicking here. His article touches on DRM, how effective it seems to be, and where we just might be heading in regards to digital rights and music.
You can click here to add the Apple Hot News feed to your feed reader.
Overall, there’s one tidbit in his article that really grabbed me.
In 2006, under 2 billion DRM-protected songs were sold worldwide by online stores, while over 20 billion songs were sold completely DRM-free and unprotected on CDs by the music companies themselves. The music companies sell the vast majority of their music DRM-free, and show no signs of changing this behavior, since the overwhelming majority of their revenues depend on selling CDs which must play in CD players that support no DRM system.
If that’s really the case, then the RIAA is putting an awful lot of work into locking down a very small amount of sold music. However, they’re approaching Steve’s article from a completely different angle, stating that Steve is actually saying he wants to license iTunes’ FairPlay DRM technology so all digital music is compatible on all digital music players. I didn’t really take that away from the article, but the RIAA is known for, well… nevermind. You read and decide.
So, how does this affect you as a worship leader? That’s the real question. How do you procure your music? What do you do with it once it’s purchased? Do you burn CD’s for your band with music you’ve purchased for them to listen to? If DRM were removed from the tracks you buy from, say, iTunes, would you just e-mail them the music to listen to? I’m curious how you see this affecting you as a worship leader.
Once you’re done reading, use our comments to post your thoughts. Is Steve right on the money, or does he not have a clue? How do you see this affecting how you do things if sweeping changes like the abolition of DRM occurs?
[tags]apple, steve jobs, ipod, riaa, drm, itunes, worshipplus[/tags]