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Navio’s New Portable Rights Management May Set Your Music And Your iPod Free

Ipod_30All we ever wanted was to buy music and and once owning it be able to enjoy it wherever we wanted to But iPod users who can only buy content at iTunes and those who buy music on Rhapsody, Urge, Yahoo! or Napster can’t play it on an iPod. Navio is promising to change all that by letting almost anyone sell music, videos, games, and other content that stays protected wherever it goes.

The company’s transaction model dubbed "Rights Over IP"  (RoIP) stores the rights associated with a song (really any digital file) inside the file itself, and unlike iTunes or Windows Media, Navio doesn’t care where you get the content.

Navio_1Navio promises iPod compatibly by the end of June.  With that final piece Navio could create a paradigm shift taking power away from the distributor (i.e. iTunes) and giving it back to the rights holder (label or artist) since their software allows the sale of the product through virtually any e-commerce platform. So far BMG is the only major label signed on, but as usual Hollywood is out front with Disney and Fox already on board.

Navio provides the opportunity to sell via a wide variety of online outlets and to experiment with variable pricing and bundling content in a ways that aren’t restricted by the rules of a particular store.  The labels or an indie artist can decide on the content, pricing and rules attached with any purchase. And the fan, who ultimately says this is worth buying or not, may once again become king.

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2 Comments

  1. Interesting post Bruce, Navio is a new company to me. I posted in the new Music Arsenal Blog my feelings about the newer subscription models and my hope that Navio will address that as well.

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