Signs Point To Death Of DRM

DRM is doomed. Hypebot readers know that all of the signs are there, but TechCrunch did a nice job of putting them all in one neat and tidy list:

• A year ago, Yahoo Music GM David Goldberg urged labels to abandon DRM
• CD sales continue to drop and are down at least 15% from 2000, and current digital sales are not offsetting that lost revenue
• eMusic, which sells only MP3s, is the no. 2 digital music reseller behind iTunes
• Amazon is rumored to be opening a MP3-only music store
• Sony Exec says “DRMs are going to become less important” as time goes on

Hypebot adds these signs that DRM is doomed:

• Increasing experimentation by major labels with mp3’s
• Rumors of at least one major label opening its catalog to mp3 sales.
• The growing chorus of indies selling mp3’s via a growing number of indie download shops