Music Retailing and Distribution
To be honest I can’t remember the last time I went and bought music at a physical music retailer like ASDA, HMV, Virgin Media or any other for that matter. Actually the last time I went to HMV I actually ended up buying something as old fashioned as a hardback copy of a book. It was actually more of an impulse purchase than anything else, I went to get a Christmas present, and if it hadn’t been because it was the day before Christmas, I would probably have bought that season of Desperate Housewives online anyway. – And I wasn’t the only one in that position as it turned out to be sold out anywhere I looked.
This is pretty much the way it always turns out when I do old fashioned shopping, I go out to get something, and gets home with something completely different from what I should have had. – Then I go online to buy what I went out for in the first place.
Online Music Retailers
Buying or obtaining music has become more and more and online experience. Most of the big music retailers sell their music online, either as physical products, digital downloads or both. Buying the physical product like a CD, from HMV is not much different from buying it in one of their stores, you get the actual disc in the actual box with the actual artwork etc. and you basically pay the same price.
Online Distribution
Digital downloads are in complete contrast to this. Here you buy a compressed version of a song and download it to your computer. Now you either burn it out on a CD or transfer it to your mp3 player, you normally get the front cover of the album art work, but no more.
Actually the distribution of music online was started way before the music was sold as digital downloads. Services like Napster and Kazaa was using the peer-to-peer technology to share music. This would enable users to share their music with everyone else around the world. You could buy a CD rip it to your pc and then share it on the internet, free for everyone to download. This is of course illegal and the music business after numerous attempts, not been able to stop this sharing culture. Their counter attack has been, to make their music available online themselves as digital downloads that you can purchase and then download to your computer.
Digital Rights Management (DRM)
This resulted in cheaper music because no reproduction costs where necessary and you could distribute music very cheap using digitally compressed formats. However to prevent the music from being illegally redistributed all the songs purchased were protected with “Digital Rights Management” (DRM) which meant that the music had a limit to how many times it could be transferred to another device (hard disk, mp3 player, pc etc.) and a limit to how many times you could burn the song to a CD. – This approach has also so failed to stop the distribution of illegal music online.
When Apple approached these companies to license their music to distribute legally over the Internet, they were extremely cautious and required Apple to protect their music from being illegally copied. Steve Jobs, Apple Inc.
DRM protection has to a big extend been upheld by record labels wanting to secure their income from music sales. But more and more players in the industry are now pushing to get rid of the DRM protection. Retailers like iTunes have the ability, in form of an increasing sale to put pressure on the big record labels to ditch the DRM protection.
Amazon MP3 is an all-MP3, DRM-free catalog of a la carte music from major labels and independent labels, playable on any device, in high-quality audio, at low prices, Bill Carr, Amazon.com
Amazon.com have sold physical music for years, but they are now opening a Digital download store where every single song is DRM free, its even cheaper than the average digital music file you download and the quality is twice as good as the one you get from for example iTunes.
Filed under: Music Online | 3 Comments
Tags: Distribution, DRM, Mp3, Retail
I find everything surrounding DRM very interesting, yet before I read this blog I didn’t feel I knew that much. However, I do now. I feel that maybe you could have included more about other sites that offer music in both the physical and digital form, but your blog does lean more towards DRM than online retailers, which is probably why you didn;t go into greater detail about that.
I think the Amazon thing is a really interesting development. I’d be curious to hear your take on a model like eMusic.com, where instead of ‘buying’ tracks, users subscribe to the site. Unlike Napster, the songs on eMusic are DRM-free and even after you stop subscribing to the site, the songs are yours to keep.
very good use of examples and information discussing music retailing and distribution. you included information on the amazon deal which hasn’t been referred to on previous blogs, plus a detailed focus on DRM. good job! one thing, go and buy more records, support our independent stores here in birmingham!