Apple offers DRM-free music; Microsoft says ‘me, too’
Posted by Dennis Sellers 
Apr 4, 2007 at 4:03pm
Microsoft plans to follow Apple in selling unprotected songs from EMI, though the company won’t say just when such tracks will appear on the Zune Marketplace store, reports CNET. This despite the fact that, when CEO Steve Jobs issued his open letter calling for an end to DRM, Microsoft said that the total abolition of such protections would be irresponsible, since it is needed for subscription music and other new business models.
However, the Big M has apparently changed its tune. “We’ve been saying for a while that we are aware that consumers want to have unprotected content,” Zune marketing director Jason Reindorp told CNET. Reindorp said he did not have a timeframe for when unprotected songs will be added to the store, though he’s speculating that the move could help Microsoft’s effort, loosening the tight bonds between the iTunes store and the iPod.
Microsoft is planning a second wave of advertising for the Zune, which has grabbed the No. 2 spot among hard drive-based music players but has seen its share slip slightly in recent weeks, notes CNET. The company had an 8.8 percent retail share of the hard drive-based market in February, according to NPD, down from 9.9 percent a month earlier.
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Dennis Sellers
Dennis has been a newspaper editor/reporter (seven years) and teacher (seven years). He has over 4,000 magazine, newspaper and online articles to his credit. He has also covered the Mac and tech industries for over a decade for such online publications as MacCentral, MacMinute and now MacsimumNews.
