DRM-free music on the way

Apple announced in early January its intent to abandon DRM for its iTunes service. The news circulated and generated many comments, but finally made its way in minds. First, Apple signed in April an agreement with EMI to distribute DRM-free content. Then Amazon announced DRM-free online music downloads in May and this week Apple said its DRM-free content will be gradually implemented and available. 50% of iTunes music would be DRM-free by the end of 2007. FNACMusic and VirginMega also start distributing DRM-free music in Europe. The two main benefits of DRM-free content are easy usage and interoperability between music players. But this has a price: DRM-free content will be more expensive than DRM-capable content by about €0.3. In addition, free music P2P downloads still exist and are the main threat to paid DRM-free content.