Apple founder calls for DRM-free music market

Apple founder, Steve Jobs, has called on the big four record labels to abandon the DRM (Digital Rights Management) copyright protection system and make all songs copyright-free.

This is a turnaround for Apple, which has been accused of locking its millions of iPod users into the iTunes music download service.

In a statement posted on the company’s website last night, Jobs proposed DRM be abandoned for the future.

“Imagine a world where every online store sells DRM-free music encoded in open licensable formats,” he said. “In such a world, any player can play music purchased from any store, and any store can sell music which is playable on all players. This is clearly the best alternative for consumers, and Apple would embrace it in a heartbeat.”

“If the big four music companies would license Apple their music without the requirement that it be protected with a DRM, we would switch to selling only DRM-free music on our iTunes store. Every iPod ever made will play this DRM-free music.”

He said the big four studios, Universal, Sony BMG, Warner and EMI, should consider the move because "DRMs haven’t worked, and may never work, to halt music piracy". He pointed out 90 per cent of music sold by the studios is via unprotected CDs, with just under 10 per cent coming from music download sites. He argued copyrighting this small proportion makes no sense.

“So if the music companies are selling over 90 per cent of their music DRM-free, what benefits do they get from selling the remaining small percentage of their music encumbered with a DRM system? There appear to be none.”

Read the full statement here.

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