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
