Inaugural Post - Introduction

With this blog, I wanted to focus on the issue of Intellectual Property Rights in the Music Industry. More specifically, the failure of Digital Rights Management (DRM) as a successful business strategy for the four major record companies, and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). In other words, what is the future of DRM in the music industry? Is DRM a dead or soon to be dead technology?

The staying or lasting power of DRM directly affects the business models of online music stores and the long term strategic direction of the music industry. At first, the music industry was unwilling to adopt digital music distribution as an acceptable business model. This is highlighted in the prosecution of popular file sharing companies such a Napster beginning in the year 2000 and the many lawsuits brought against companies or users that used such services. A lot has changed since then, with the continued growth of digital music sales over traditional physical mediums (CDs, mini Discs). On the other hand there has been an unrelenting rise of piracy and illegal downloads of copyrighted media over peer to peer networks (P2P) and Bit Torrent protocol technology. Record companies and all those involved in their production value chain (artists, composers, producers, etc) must find away to secure their investments and protect their profit margins. DRM technology provides a way to secure digital sales of music. It was first seen a definite way to hinder the illegal sharing of digital formats of music.

However, the many different forms of DRM technologies have left music fans wanting much more interactivity and compatibility from their music management software and portable music playing devices. Not to mention, that it has not deterred or decreased incidents of online piracy.

What is the goal of this blog? My research topic will cover the following areas:

• The initial impact and subsequent use of DRM technology


• The lack of an industry wide DRM standard or format


• And finally the continued abandonment or ease of restrictions placed on consumers by the music industry in regard to DRM.

This can be seen in Napsters announcement in May that it will start selling over 6 million songs, DRM free from its online store with a the catalog supported by all four major record companies. Furthermore, most of the online music stores now offer DRM-free content at varying prices. This accomplishment did not seem possible at the beginning of this decade.

Check the news roll section of this blog for the latest news on this topic located in the upper left-hand section. Feel free to view the many videos on DRM from the video bar located at the bottom of the blog. I have tweaked them both to display new stories and videos relevant to this topic.