A Realistic Attitude toward DRM

Variety reports that Yahoo’s lobbying effort to get the labels to ditch DRM reached another milestone:

In a first for mainstream pop music, Yahoo! will sell Jesse McCartney’s new album “Right Where You Want Me,” from Disney-owned Hollywood Records, in the unprotected MP3 format. That means consumers will be able to play it on any digital music device, including Apple’s iPod. MP3 files are the only type that will play on an iPod besides those downloaded from iTunes.

But because they have no copy protection, MP3 files can be easily traded on peer-to-peer networks, emailed to friends or burned onto an endless number of CDs.

“We’re trying to be realistic,” said Ken Bunt, senior VP of marketing at Hollywood Records. “Jesse’s single is already online and we haven’t put it out. Piracy happens regardless of what we do. So we’re going to see how Jesse’s album goes (as an MP3) and then decide on others going forward.”

Yahoo! previously sold an exclusive version of Jessica Simpson song “A Public Affair” as an MP3, but it has never offered a major-label album for sale elsewhere without copy restriction, nor have any of the other digital music stores.

That’s the most sensible quote about DRM I’ve seen from the recording industry in… well, probably ever. I’ve never heard of Jesse McCartney, but I’m tempted to buy a copy of his album on principle. If it sells well, maybe that will encourage other labels to be equally realistic.

Hat tip: Derek

Update: I poked around on Yahoo’s site for a little while, but couldn’t find an easy way to buy the album. Perhaps you have to do that through their client software, which doesn’t appear to have a Mac version. If anyone knows of a straightforward way to buy the MP3 version of the music, please let me know.

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