Conclusion

DRM was once dominant, getting the support of the record labels that saw it as a way to protect their copyrighted works. However, with all the features that DRM protection boasted, the most unfavorable was the restrictions it placed on accessing and sharing content. Apple iTunes emerged as a dominant player in the music industry using a proprietary system based on DRM technology. With the record labels behind it, Apple was able to control prices and benefit from the popularity of its portable music players. The record labels complained, as they could not reap many profits from this arrangement, as records sales in the music industry were decreasing, even though digital music sales are increasing. Therefore, in order to keep a pace with their competitors the major labels sought new revenue streams. The most promising of course was to drop DRM from their catalogs to ensure a larger user base. This necessarily does not mean that DRM is completely dead, as the effect of its impact on the music industry will remain in place until digital music distribution becomes the pre-dominant music model and more music stores compete against iTunes using open standards easily accessible by music fans.

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