Yahoo! Music Blog » Buy A Customized MP3 At Yahoo! Music

Blog

Buy A Customized MP3 At Yahoo! Music

Posted by iancr, July 19, 2006 at 2:34 pm, in YMusicBlog General.

You can buy a personalized version of the new Jessica Simpson song “A Public Affair” from Yahoo! Music’s Web Site (Music.Yahoo.com) for $1.99, and it’s an MP3. Dear digital consumer, even if you’re not into Jessica Simpson, and you’re not excited about spending $2 for a song, let me tell you, this is a bigger deal than you might think.

As you know, we’ve been publicly trying to convince record labels that they should be selling MP3s for a while now. Our position is simple: DRM doesn’t add any value for the artist, label (who are selling DRM-free music every day — the Compact Disc), or consumer, the only people it adds value to are the technology companies who are interested in locking consumers to a particular technology platform.

We’ve also been saying that DRM has a cost. It’s very expensive for companies like Yahoo! to implement. We’d much rather have our engineers building better personalization, recommendations, playlisting applications, community apps, etc, instead of complex provisioning systems which at the end of the day allow you to burn a CD and take the DRM back off, anyway! And on the consumer end there is certainly some discount built into that $0.99 download for the fact that you can burn a limited number of times, can’t play it on your Squeezebox, can’t DJ it with your DJ software, and can’t make a movie out of it with iMovie? I certainly hope so. Un-DRM’d content is implicitly more valuable to a consumer.

Now put that next to the fact that Emusic carries most everyone aside from the major labels (even big indies like V2 and TVT — White Stripes and Lil’ Jon are available via Emusic), and you see why we’re dying for the rights to offer MP3 downloads for sale to our users.

Which is why we’re so excited about these personalized Jessica Simpson tracks. Not only is it pretty cool to have a version of the song which speaks to me (I was shocked to see they had “Ian”, did they do that for me?), but it’s in MP3 format, which I have no problem paying a little more for (though $1.99 is a premium price because of the PERSONALIZATION, not the DRM, the right price for MP3s is somewhere between $0.99 and there, IMHO).

We hope you see the importance of this, too, and pick up a copy for yourself and/or a loved one, even if you don’t love JS and think that $1.99 is too much to spend on an MP3.

ian c rogers
Yahoo! Music

Permalink

91 Comments »

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI

What will be even more interesting, Ian, is when subscription services offer un-DRM’d MP3s.

Why on earth would ANYONE then pay for individual downloads? Perhaps if you made an unlimited-all-you-can-download service at $300/year, watermarked the files (to discourage wholesale reselling), and charged 10 cents per download (closer to the price of allofmp3.com ;), then you and the music industry would have a LONG TERM sustainable business. Without *any* DRM to worry about.

Just so crazy it might work, eh?

Comment by Adam — July 19, 2006 #
eMusic offers a Monthly subscription for MP3s

* eMusic Basic: $9.99 per month/40 downloads
* eMusic Plus: $14.99 per month/65 downloads
* eMusic Premium: $19.99 per month/90 downloads

Comment by Matt — July 19, 2006 #
I’m not a Yahoo Music customer yet. I’ve never bought music off the Internet because of the DRM, since it locks you into the technologies it was designed for. I’m thrilled to see Yahoo take this step and will eagerly start buying my music here once the stores goes over to MP3.

Comment by veztar — July 19, 2006 #
[…] From Ian Rogers (Yahoo!): As you know, we’ve been publicly trying to convince record labels that they should be selling MP3s for a while now. Our position is simple: DRM doesn’t add any value for the artist, label (who are selling DRM-free music every day — the Compact Disc), or consumer, the only people it adds value to are the technology companies who are interested in locking consumers to a particular technology platform. […]

Pingback by Delicate Genius Blog » Blog Archive » Buy mp3 (non DRM’ed) music from Yahoo! Music? — July 20, 2006 #
I love the fact that Yahoo has been taken and I’m glad someone on your level has finally spoken out. I run a small mp3 download site for latin music and I’ve gotten a few songs here and there from the majors and have more traffic than some of my well funded competitors in my niche market, but the lack of being able to really get all of their product because they don’t deal in mp3’s is frustrating.

Windows Media DRM is too costly for me to implement and besides that, I’m a Mac user by nature, and if It can’t run on all platforms, I won’t support it and Apple as we know won’t license their DRM.

I think MP3’s are the way to go and will definitely level the playing field.

Comment by Musica360.com — July 20, 2006 #
This is a huge leap forward for the music industry. I can’t think of one consumer who is OK with DRM. My university has a deal with Ruckus to give us unlimited music downloads, but no body uses it, mostly because of the DRM restrictions.

I feel a price point of $0.99 is perfectly fine. I would like to have more options for output format, however. MP3 is fine for some songs, but audiophiles would rather have a lossless format (FLAC), or an open format with better quality (OGG).

Comment by jmacdonagh — July 20, 2006 #
This is some of the more exciting news I’ve heard recently. I’m not into Jessica Simpson or the personalization idea, but I’m VERY into the non-DRM idea. Although I’m very technically literate, I am among the ranks of those who have never bought any music online (aside from CDs) due to the DRM nonsense. Just give me an option to buy the music, period. I understand copyright laws and am a law-abiding citizen — I’ll keep the music to myself.

If we can get over that hurdle, then we can start talking about formats; something a little less lossy than MP3 might be nice, but I’ll settle for MP3 any day as long as I can truly OWN the music!

Comment by rmrmrm — July 20, 2006 #
I love eMusic.

Yahoo is just as guilty of the issue of tying people to certain technology. Mac users can’t even use Yahoo Music. This was especially silly when NARAS gave all of the Grammy voters access to nominated songs through Yahoo Music. How many of us (Grammy voters) do you think are Mac users?

Higher bitrate mp3s aren’t as bad. I have a site where I sell my stuff as 256k mp3s. I did it as much for the point of wanting my stuff to be available DRM free, than for financial reasons.

It’s good to see that Yahoo has seen the light, even if it is just one instance.

Comment by jeff albert — July 20, 2006 #
[…] Yahoo! Music Blog » Buy A Customized Jessica Simpson MP3 At Yahoo! Music […]

Pingback by Scratch My Brain - A music and arts blog with an emphasis on jazz and improvised music, and the business issues surrounding 21st century creativity. - » Yahoo! Music Blog » Buy A Customized Jessica Simpson MP3 At Yahoo! Music — July 20, 2006 #
I tried to purchase this song (to support non drm’d music on your recommendation) and it brought me to a URL which didn’t actually do anything when I clicked “download”. Customer support appears to be non existant. I am really annoyed, because there doesn’t appear to be any way for me to get the song I paid for.
If you can help, email me at khatlelid[at]yahoo.com.

Comment by khatlelid — July 20, 2006 #
Awesome Ian. I’ve avoided buying from iTunes for just this reason. Please make sure to let us know when more songs go up as non-DRM’d MP3s, so we can support this move in the download business.

Comment by kpratt — July 20, 2006 #
Awesome.

Now, just make it 99c to match with comparable services and get more (better?) artists to do the same, and you’ve sold me.

And yes, I realize this will be a hard sell to the record companies, but I’m not going to pay double for the privilege of not dealing with DRM.

It’s about time someone realized that DRM will never work at preventing piracy and is more of a hassle to average consumers than it’s worth.

Comment by Spoom — July 20, 2006 #
Kudos to Yahoo! Music for helping shake off the music industry’s paranoia. DRM is hurting their online profits and stunting their growth.

It is also souring millions of new customers to the online music experience. They may never come back. Can you imagine the consumer backlash if you purchased an audio CD and it would only play on a Sony CD player?

DRM MUST DIE before online music can truly thrive. I’m so happy that eMusic and Yahoo! Music are digging it’s grave!

Jeff

Comment by devisetech — July 20, 2006 #
Ian, this is a great first step. I’m glad to see that someone at Yahoo remembers that the users are the customers, not the music companies. –shac

Comment by shac — July 20, 2006 #
[…] It’s just an experiment, but it’s an exciting one. You can buy a personalized version of the new Jessica Simpson song “A Public Affair” at Yahoo! Music. So what? Well, besides the personalization, which means it’ll insert your name, the tracks are MP3s … no DRM. And, as blogged at the Yahoo! Music blog, this is something Yahoo! would love to extend to … well, everything. As you know, we’ve been publicly trying to convince record labels that they should be selling MP3s for a while now. Our position is simple: DRM doesn’t add any value for the artist, label (who are selling DRM-free music every day — the Compact Disc), or consumer, the only people it adds value to are the technology companies who are interested in locking consumers to a particular technology platform. Source: Y!Music Blog […]

Pingback by DRM-less Music Planned for Yahoo! Music? @ Alice Hill’s Real Tech News - Independent Tech — July 21, 2006 #
Hi everyone. Thanks for all the support. Wow. It’s been really overwhelming. We’ve received nothing but praise for our thoughts here and it’s truly encouraging. Clearly we’ve touched a nerve here, which makes sense — we’re talking about consumer’s rights.

Jeff, lets be clear about exactly who is guilty of tying folks to a certain technology. Yahoo! tried to get Apple to allow us to use Fairplay, they said no thanks. Yahoo! tried to get Microsoft to support the Windows Media stack on the Mac, they said it wasn’t a priority. So what is Yahoo! to do, invent our own DRM? That’s not the best use of our energies. This is exactly the point. Supporting DRM in our products is non-trivial and creating our own DRMs is not our place in the value chain. Just doing what we’ve done costs smart engineers lots of time and therefore Yahoo! lots of money. On the Windows platform (where we’ve developed our Yahoo! Music Engine product) we have the benefit of a complete DRM solution provided by Microsoft and it’s still a very difficult endeavor (many users will tell you about the difficulties we’ve had here). We are locked out of the DRM solution on the Mac platform. So should we invent our own on the Mac to compete against Apple on their own turf for a small (yet important) sliver of the market? I’d argue it’s much much better for Yahoo!, the consumer, the artist, and the label to see DRM disappear from this picture (since the value it adds is negligible) and put our energies into something more positive AROUND the music experience, like playlisting, personalization, location independence, community, or other types of user utility. Yahoo! is trying to break down these walls. The OS and harware companies are trying to build them. Yahoo! wants the world to look like the Web, based on standards where users can change their homepage to be anything they’d like it to be. We like those rules, they’re the ones that birthed us.

So this isn’t us getting it “for once”. We got it from the beginning, we’re just trying to release products within the constraints of the moment. Moving these sort of boundaries is not trivial. Our resources are not unlimited.

I would like to stress again two important things I was a little light on in my post:

a) This promotion works on your iPod, and every other device known to man. MP3 is the dominant design at this point, and that’s not insignificant.

b) This promotion was orders of magnitude easier for us to put together than our DRM-based offerings. You’re talking about a few man-weeks of development instead of many man-years. The cost of DRM is much greater than most people appreciate, and we all pay for it in many hidden ways. The amount of technology effort is not infinite in any given year. Lets spend it wisely.

ian

Comment by iancr — July 21, 2006 #
Of course with iTunes, I actually receive the music I pay for and have access to customer suport. I’m pretty disenchanted with the yahoo music experience thus far. So far, no response to emails, no song after paying.

Comment by khatlelid — July 21, 2006 #
[…] Se la possibilità di acquistare una versione di “Family affair” personalizzata in cui viene inserito il vostro nome nel brano non vi attira, la notizia è comunque interessante per quello che è stato scritto su Yahoo! Music Blog: questo mp3 che si potrà scaricare sarà privo di DRM come da tempo caldeggiato da Dave Goldberg, vicepresidente di Yahoo! e General Manager della sezione musica. […]

Pingback by Yahoo!: è possibile vendere musica senza DRM? — July 21, 2006 #
I disagree with Adam (first commentor), subscription is bad. I tried eMusic and the only thing wrong with it was the subscription. I resented the entry on my credit card bill in months when I hadn’t used their site.

So, my ideal service would be:
* Non DRMd but I´d tolerate this watermark
* All tracks non DRMs, I don’t want to sift through with some tracks DRMd and some not. If you promised no DRM, and I went in and saw a few DRMd, I’d view you as scammy.
* Single track buys, discounted bulk offers, e.g. buy an album cheaper, buy 5 albums even cheaper.

Comment by njohnstone — July 21, 2006 #
Let’s say you could download a compressed but lossless version of a track off a CD. You’re getting exactly what you’d get on the CD less the shipping, artwork and physical object. Logically it should be about 1/12th the cost of a CD of 10 tracks. eg 90c. Now what price should a compressed 192Kb VBR MP3 of the same track be? Less, surely? 50c? Now how about a 128Kb MP3, Less again, surely. 25c?

Now look at the AllOfMp3.com model as a customer. Forget about the business model and whether they’re cheating or not, look purely as a customer. Any encoding you want charged by the megabyte with FLAC being a little less than the cost of a discounted CD. This is what Yahoo! music should do; Copy the user experience of AllOfMp3. Charge realistic prices based on a per megabyte model with lossless being a little less than the equivalent physical CD.

And

Just Say No To DRM.

Comment by jbond — July 21, 2006 #
[…] The Yahoo music blog writes (link: buy-a-customized-jessica-simpson-mp3-at-yahoo-music): […]

Pingback by Fakir :: Yahoo says “DRM doesn’t add any value” :: July :: 2006 — July 21, 2006 #
[…] Über Sinnhaftigkeit und Preis mag man sich nun an der Stirn kratzen, aber Yahoo! geht einen Schritt weiter und bietet den Song als MP3 ohne DRM an! Auf jeden Fall ein Schritt in die richtige Richtung und es bleibt zu hoffen, daß es nicht bei dieser Einzelaktion bleibt. Argumentiert wird dieser Schritt im Blogeintrag von Yahoo! Music unter anderem durch, daß DRM eine Stange Geld kostet und den Käufer verärgert. […]

Pingback by vernetzt | Personalisierter Song von Jessica Simpson bei Yahoo! — July 21, 2006 #
[…] As Ian Rogers noted in the Y! Music Blog: “Dear digital consumer, even if you’re not into Jessica Simpson, and you’re not excited about spending $2 for a song, let me tell you, this is a bigger deal than you might think.” […]

Pingback by Yahoo! Music offers DRM-free promo — July 21, 2006 #
Ian,

I totally get that the reason Yahoo Music only supports one OS isn’t really Yahoo’s doing. I guess the last line of my earlier comment should be that at least Jessica Simpson’s record company get’s it…for once.

The labels insist on DRM, or Consumer Irritation Management as I have heard it called, and the dominant OS makers insist on stupid hardware exclusive ways to provide the useless DRM. That does leave providers like Yahoo in an impossible spot.

Comment by jeff albert — July 21, 2006 #
Now what price should a compressed 192Kb VBR MP3 of the same track be? Less, surely? 50c? Now how about a 128Kb MP3, Less again, surely. 25c?

Right, to charge that much for a lossy copy is usury. I don’t want sub-CD-quality at over-CD-prices…

Any encoding you want charged by the megabyte with FLAC being a little less than the cost of a discounted CD.

Right again, lossless at fair prices is the key to open my wallet for music downloads. I would even be satisfied with eg. Ogg Vorbis. Give me anything, that sounds better than low bitrate MP3’s and don’t overcharge for it.

Isn’t it ironic? Normally the industry copies a successful model, but it doesn’t in the case of AllofMP3. It is known by now, that a lot of people call the “legal” musicstores rip off’s, because they charge too much for too less. Bandwith and storage can’t be the problems for major players…

Comment by derlinzer — July 21, 2006 #
To Yahoo.

Yes, the new customized Jessica Simpson MP3 is a great feature.. if it works on a Mac. I tried downloading this [customized Mp3 file] 3 times and it did not work. Your instructions are old to boot. IE for Mac should be omitted as there’s really no more development for this app..

Comment by samlevin — July 21, 2006 #
[…] Yahoo Music Blog: […]

Pingback by Musings of the Great Eric » Blog Archive » Yahoo wants to sell mp3s — July 21, 2006 #
[…] It’s not like some sort of DRM floodgate has been unlocked, and now unrestricted files flow freely from the Yahoo! Music vaults, but one unrestricted MP3 file has made its way onto their site, so we’re going to milk it for all its worth. The song, “A Public Affair” by Jessica Simpson, can be “personalized” by choosing your name before downloading, which gets yourself inserted into the lyrics. If you’d rather not have Jessica singing your name, you can at least sit on the sidelines with us and debate the ramifications of the release. Yahoo! Music’s official blog discusses the future of unprotected MP3 releases, stating the premium price was for the custom content, and mulls over the possibility of a $1.09 price point for straight up MP3 files. They don’t see much hope of getting the labels to go for it just yet, but with experiments like this it shows we at least have Yahoo! on our side trying to make the music market more of a free one. Read more HERE! […]

Pingback by andreas04: close to attraction — July 21, 2006 #
[…] DRM ergebe weder für Musiker noch für Label und Kunden einen zusätzlichen Wert, sondern nur für die Anbieter von DRM-Techniken, schreibt Ian Rogers richtigerweise im Musik Blog von Yahoo. Weiterhin meint Rogers sinngemäß, dass die Implementierung von DRM Techniken für Unternehmen wie Yahoo zu teuer sei. Die Techniker sollten lieber die Playlist Funktionen verbessern und sich um bessere Personalisierung der Musik Shops kümmern, anstatt um immer kompliziertere Systeme, welche letztendlich vom Kunden ohnehin umgangen werden würden. (Falls sie überhaupt noch genutzt werden) […]

Pingback by Maingold » Blog Archive » DRM nutzt nur den Anbietern von DRM Technologien — July 21, 2006 #
khatlelid,

Sorry you had a problem. I mailed you and gave you my cell number. Lets straighten this out.

ian

Comment by iancr — July 21, 2006 #
For some reason my trackback isn’t showing up. At http://john.theobriens.ca/2006/07/20/yahoo-jessica-and-drm/trackback/ I posted my thoughts and posed the following question to Yahoo!

If eMusic can license content from the indies to sell free of DRM then why are you not doing the same thing already? Have you chosen not to because it complicates the marketing message (i.e. some of our songs you can do what you want, some of them you can’t - oh the ugly UI headache) or is it that the major labels have forced you to DRM ALL the content you sell or they wouldn’t provide their catalogues?

Comment by johnny — July 21, 2006 #
[…] Yahoo! Music appears to have taken a step in the right direction for online music. They have begun offering music downloads in an open format, specifically MP3. The first song they are offering in that format is Jessica Simpson’s “A Public Affair,” the title track from her upcoming album. […]

Pingback by Pierce Law IP News Blog » Yahoo! Music to Offer DRM-Free Downloads — July 21, 2006 #
To say that DRMS’s only benefit those companies interested in restricting content to one platform is a complete misreprensetation. Much as I loath DRM’s the plain fact is that without them we’d still be downloading music illegally. The ONLY people to blame for restrictive DRM systems are the record companies and their hired enforcers.

Please don’t grind your commercial axes whilst hiding behind a “we are doing this for the common good” missive.

Anyhow, I hope this is the thin end of the wedge. Now get a few hundred thousand more DRM’sless tracks and we’re cooking :).

Comment by derrty — July 21, 2006 #
[…] La gente de Yahoo! ha llegado a la conclusión de que los sistemas DRM son absurdos, tal y como escribe Ian Rogers y parece ser que están decidiendo eliminar el ponerle los sistemas de control a las canciones, planteando también que el hecho de vender la música tan barata no compensa el coste que supone ponerle los DRM. […]

Pingback by Yahoo! apuesta por la música sin DRM — July 21, 2006 #
Much as I loath DRM’s the plain fact is that without them we’d still be downloading music illegally.

Hm… We already have DRM and there’s still illegal music downloads.

In my opinion, there are two kinds of users: Those, that would pay for music and those, that never will.

So, they ones that don’t want to pay give a sh.. about DRM and still share and the only option for people that want to spend money for legal downloads, is to be ripped off for bad quality and questionable restrictions!

I would never pay a single cent for sub-CD-quality with DRM, but i would if i got, what i wanted. See, one potential customer less… So, who does profit?

And yes, i blame music stores for the situation. Why? Because, if they major player stood up and said “hey, we won’t sell that crap, because no one will buy it”, then they could force labels and enforcers to remove DRM completely. And why don’t they do it? Because they couldn’t care less about consumers…

Comment by derlinzer — July 21, 2006 #
Well… this blog doesn’t seem to accept my trackback, so I’ll just add it as a comment:

It looks like some larger companies are starting to see the light and realizing that DRM is more of a burden than it has benefit to both consumers and content providers. In a symbolic move, Yahoo are now offering a DRM-free personalized MP3 download - you may think about the artist and the song what you want, but at least it’s a step in the right direction and the reasons that Yahoo gives for this initiative show that they are in fact serious about this.

Comment by hrabbach — July 21, 2006 #
[…] Me entero v�a el blog de Le�n Felipe que Yahoo! Music est� lanzando m�sica de J�ssica Simpson de forma personalizada y sin DRMs [�A Public Affair�]. La nota original sali� en Wired ayer “Yahoo Offers MP3 Sans DRM” y es realmente una buena noticia que anticipa un poco la industria cultural que viene, vale decir, una que est� liberada de tecnolog�as anticopias. Tal como anticipa la nota de Wired, este puede ser un quiebre significativo a las formas cl�sicas de la industria. Lo cierto es que Epic anunci� la venta de este simple a trav�s de la tienda de Yahoo! Music bajo dos condiciones: [1] que sea libre de DRM�s, lo cual permitir� transportarla hacia cualquier soporte; [2] y que sea obtenido de forma personalizada y el usuario est� en una lista de nombres. El costo de la canci�n es de US$1.99. Esperemos que este sea el principio de un camino hacia la liberaci�n de la m�sica de los DRM�s. �S�lo promoci�n? Puede ser, pero tambi�n es cierto que los DRM no favorecen ni a los artistas, ni a las discogr�ficas, ni a los usuarios. Esto se acerca mucho a lo que comenzamos a incubar en Negocios Abiertos y que estar� listo en unas semanas. Buenos Aires. Sin Comentarios hasta ahora Deje un Comentario Los saltos de l�nea y de p�rrafo son autom�ticos, la direcci�n de e-mail nunca se muestra, HTML permitido: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong> […]

Pingback by ARIEL VERCELLI — July 21, 2006 #
[…] Yahoo’s been getting a lot of attention this week because they’re selling a Jessica Simpson single for download. It’s not just any single, though, there’s hundreds of customized versions of the track, and users can download the one that’s got their name in it. But that’s not what’s generating all the interest — the big news is that the tracks don’t have any DRM. Yahoo’s saying all the right things, that they want to sell more unrestricted tracks, but can’t because of the labels, and so on. I think their sentiment is pretty genuine, if for no other reason than they realize that unrestricted tracks are worth more to consumers, so they can theoretically charge a higher price (they do admit $1.99 for the Jessica Simpson songs are steep, but it’s because of the personalization, not the lack of DRM). It’s doubly great for them that skipping over the DRM also reduces their costs. […]

Pingback by Is This The Dawn Of DRM-Free Music From Major Labels? at MobHappy — July 21, 2006 #
Regardless of the motive, this is at least a step in the right direction. I don’t support music piracy, but I also don’t support DRM, which, in my opinion, is as damaging to the consumer as piracy is to the record label.

Keep up the good work!

Comment by knownzeros — July 21, 2006 #
[…] There’s two things about this that strike me as quite interesting. First, it’s a prime example of the massive amount of customization that the music industry could exploit online. I just finished reading The Long Tail by Wired’s Editor-in-Chief Chris Anderson. It details how their’s lots of money to be made in niches (the long tail), even niches as small as 1 peraon (or in this case, 1 name). The second interesting part is this post on yahoo’s music blog. They’re bascially begging the music industry to let them create an emusic competitor. They also make a great point about how DRM adds nothing since labels already sell DRMless CDs. Maybe there’s a chance the labels will come to their senses and give this a try. The Carrot: major labels realizing that DRM really just means they’re locked into iTunes. The Stick: companies like Yahoo saying it’s the only way to compete with Apple. […]

Pingback by award tour » yahoo sells a single drm-free mp3 — July 21, 2006 #
b) This promotion was orders of magnitude easier for us to put together than our DRM-based offerings. You’re talking about a few man-weeks of development instead of many man-years. The cost of DRM is much greater than most people appreciate, and we all pay for it in many hidden ways. The amount of technology effort is not infinite in any given year. Lets spend it wisely.

Agreed. Changing an MP3’s ID3 (I assume this is what you’re doing with the “customized” thing) can be done with open source software and probably some custom automation on your part. Coming up with a difficult to break DRM scheme is much harder. Besides the fact that you don’t have to encrypt the track each time it’s downloaded.
This is why I have trouble believing that it would be in my best interest to buy non-DRM tracks at a higher price than DRM’d tracks. It costs you less and yet you’re charging us more?
Don’t get me wrong, this is certainly a big step in the right direction. I just don’t want to see a choice in the future of downloading a “restricted” track at a low price vs. downloading an “unrestricted” track at a higher price.

Much as I loath DRM’s the plain fact is that without them we’d still be downloading music illegally.

Guess what? A lot of us still are, and when we find a track that has DRM on it, we strip it. No DRM encryption is or ever will be perfect because the scheme in and of itself is flawed. DRM isn’t necessary, and in the end, you’re relying on the user to be honest anyway. There’s no way you can prevent someone from doing what they want with the files on their own computer.
PS. I think any pricing comparison to AllOfMP3 is a bad idea because they have very questionable legality and likely aren’t actually getting the rights for the tracks they have.

Comment by Spoom — July 21, 2006 #
Sign the petition!

http://www.petitiononline.com/riaamp3/petition.html

Lets get them to sell it in MP3 format!

Comment by DustoneGT — July 21, 2006 #
[…] Ian C Rogers at the Yahoo! Music Blog writes about this big step for Yahoo! Music: Our position is simple: DRM doesn’t add any value for the artist, label (who are selling DRM-free music every day — the Compact Disc), or consumer, the only people it adds value to are the technology companies who are interested in locking consumers to a particular technology platform. […]

Pingback by Harv’s World » Blog Archive » Another battle in the DRM war — July 21, 2006 #
[…] As Ian Rogers from Yahoo Music states: DRM doesn’t add any value for the artist, label (who are selling DRM-free music every day — the Compact Disc), or consumer, the only people it adds value to are the technology companies who are interested in locking consumers to a particular technology platform. […]

Pingback by CD Burning from the inside — July 21, 2006 #
You know, as much as I despise Jessica Simpson (and her equally no-talent sibling), I would cheerfully spend $2 for a non-DRM file I’d never play - yes, I am that anti-RIAA. Only problem is, Yahoo! requires a “YahooID,” which I refuse to accept (let’s be real - my personal information is what the corporation really wants, as in, “your privacy is important to us, since we make a bunch of money violating it”). And something I hate even more than DRM is Yahoo’s invasion into my privacy.

You want to sell music? Then sell it, and stop asking for unnecessary personal information so you can track me across all your “properties.” Remove the DRM…AND the “sign-up” requirements.

Comment by ChrisSaw — July 21, 2006 #
When the repertoire expands beyond Jessica Simpson, this is where I will buy my music. Keep up the good work!

Comment by bajsejohannes — July 21, 2006 #
Ian why doesnt Yahoo sell Music from The Orchard who also own eMusic like Peer Impact does ?

http://www.peerimpact.com

Comment by Matt — July 22, 2006 #
[…] On the Yahoo! Music Blog, ian c. rogers is touting Yahoo’s personalized version of Jessica Simpson’s new song, A Public Affair. What’s most important, though, is that the copies they are selling are non-DRM’ed MP3 files - that’s right, no jumping through hoops to get this purchased song into your MP3 player, as there is no Digital Rights Management software for you to have to break just to play the song. As the blog says, “even if you’re not into Jessica Simpson, and you’re not excited about spending $2 for a song, let me tell you, this is a bigger deal than you might think.” […]

Pingback by Nostalgic Rumblings » Yahoo! Releases non-DRM Music — July 22, 2006 #
[…] Ian Rogers of Yahoo! Music wrote a nice post about the DRM-free offering, which says, in part: As you know, we’ve been publicly trying to convince record labels that they should be selling MP3s for a while now. Our position is simple: DRM doesn’t add any value for the artist, label (who are selling DRM-free music every day — the Compact Disc), or consumer, the only people it adds value to are the technology companies who are interested in locking consumers to a particular technology platform. […]

Pingback by hello.georgina.org » The DRMa of Digital Rights Management — July 22, 2006 #
[…] There are DRM free alternatives for music you can play anywhere. […]

Pingback by The Inferno » The 95 theses of geek activism — July 23, 2006 #
[…] Hat’s off to Yahoo’s Ian Rogers for this: “Our position is simple: DRM doesn’t add any value for the artist, label (who are selling DRM-free music every day — the Compact Disc), or consumer, the only people it adds value to are the technology companies who are interested in locking consumers to a particular technology platform.” […]

Pingback by DEALSDAQ » Blog Archive » DRM-Less — July 24, 2006 #
This is very, very appreciated! Wise move. Let’s hope it works well. It will make my life a lot easier. Thanks Yahoo!

Comment by Mountain — July 24, 2006 #
Actions like this will win over not only my music purchases, but many more of my online activities. As of now, I am going to favor Yahoo! properties and Yahoo! merchants. This vote with my dollars will show my support of the DRM-free thinking. I look forward to DRM-free audio books.

Comment by davidshields — July 24, 2006 #
[…] A través del blog Telepocalypse descubro que Yahoo ha anunciado a través del blog de YahooMusic que venderá por $1.99 canciones en formato MP3 y sin DRM, para diferenciarse de la oferta de Apple que vende en iTunes canciones a $0.99 (0,99€ en Europa… Si eres un comprador compulsivo de canciones te puede compensar irte de vacaciones a Nueva York y pagartelas con lo que te ahorres comprando la música allí ), aunque protegidas con un DRM. […]

Pingback by Mi otro blog… » Blog Archive » Yahoo venderá música on-line sin DRM — July 26, 2006 #
[…] Ya es un paso adelante e indica que los grandes consorcios distribuidores de música digital han empezado a dar su brazo a torcer (Yahoo casi siempre lidera en estos temas) y es que es tan masivo el uso de programas P2P que tarde o temprano debían encontrar la manera de seguir obteniendo ingresos pero también beneficiando a los usuarios que al final del dia somos quienes importamos. Recientemente Yahoo anunció que venderá el último single de la cantante pop norteamericana Jessica Simpson en formato MP3 sin DRM, el código antipiratería que evita su distribución ilegal. De este modo, el tema “A Public Affair” podrá ser reproducido en cualquier tipo de reproductor digital portátil y modificado con cualquier aplicacion de edición de sonido que no tenga soporte para leer archivos codificados con el estándar DRM. El precio de venta sería de 1.99 dólares (el doble de lo que se cobra en iTunes). […]

Pingback by TecnoCHICA » Yahoo venderá el último single de Jessica Simpson en MP3 sin DRM — July 27, 2006 #
[…] I see that Yahoo Music is pushing the major labels to forgo DRM themselves. In fact, they’re offering customized MP3s to show the labels that un-DRMed music can make money. While I applaud YME for taking this step, offering a Jessica Simpson MP3 to buyers is like trying to encourage children to eat better by offering raw broccoli and brussels sprouts. Search […]

Pingback by The Sweet Sounds of DRM Free Music at ericschaffner.net — July 27, 2006 #
Ian

I just wanted to let you know that I would love to buy this file, double price and everything. But after trying several times the Yahoo checkout process always results in an error. To make matters worse, it seems many others here in Finland have the same problem.

This is really sad, as I’m sure you could hit record sales with this move if you would just accept our money!

Comment by hingo — July 28, 2006 #
[…] La gente de Yahoo! ha llegado a la conclusión de que los sistemas DRM son absurdos, tal y como escribe Ian Rogers y parece ser que están decidiendo eliminar el ponerle los sistemas de control a las canciones, planteando también que el hecho de vender la música tan barata no compensa el coste que supone ponerle los DRM. […]

Pingback by Yahoo! apuesta por la música sin DRM — AdSense Facil — July 28, 2006 #
[…] La gente de Yahoo! ha llegado a la conclusión de que los sistemas DRM son absurdos, tal y como escribe Ian Rogers y parece ser que están decidiendo eliminar el ponerle los sistemas de control a las canciones, planteando también que el hecho de vender la música tan barata no compensa el coste que supone ponerle los DRM. […]

Pingback by AdSense Facil» Blog Archive » Yahoo! apuesta por la música sin DRM — July 29, 2006 #
[…] There are DRM free alternatives for music you can play anywhere. […]

Pingback by Hello, I Must Be Going » Blog Archives » The 95 Theses of Geek Activism — August 1, 2006 #
[…] Recently, folks at Yahoo! Music have shown that they might be experimenting with distributing digital music minus DRM. I truly believe this is a great move if they can pull it off. […]

Pingback by On Shayan’s Mind — August 3, 2006 #
[…] Link […]

Pingback by newsBreaks.net » Yahoo music blog decries DRM — August 4, 2006 #
[…] Buy A Customized MP3 At Yahoo! MusicYou can buy a personalized version of the new Jessica Simpson song A Public Affair from Yahoo! Music s Web Site (Music.Yahoo.com) for $1.99, and it s an MP3. Dear digital consumer, even if you re not into Jessica Simpson, … […]

Pingback by ABA Report on Presidential Signing Statements: A …So whatrsquo;s wrong -- Centplus Tech — August 25, 2006 #
[…] Buy A Customized MP3 At Yahoo! MusicYou can buy a personalized version of the new Jessica Simpson song A Public Affair from Yahoo! Music s Web Site (Music.Yahoo.com) for $1.99, and it s an MP3. Dear digital consumer, even if you re not into Jessica Simpson, … […]

Pingback by Grandpa Gorilla vs Rick Santorum on Social SecurityFrom the Americans -- Centplus Tech — August 25, 2006 #
[…] Buy A Customized MP3 At Yahoo! MusicYahoo.com) for $1.99, and it s an MP3. Dear digital consumer, even if you re not into Jessica Simpson, and you re not excited about spending $2 for a song, let me tell you, … It s very expensive for companies like Yahoo! to implement. … […]

Pingback by Buy A Customized MP3 At Yahoo! MusicYahoo.com) for $1.99, and -- Centplus Tech — August 30, 2006 #
[…] Yahoo! wants you to have A Public Affair with Jessica Simpson, with no strings attached.Yahoo! is selling personalized versions of the new Jessica Simpson song A Public Affair from their Yahoo! Music web site. What makes it newsworthy is that Yahoo! is letting you get the track personalized with your name (a large list of names is available) and offering the digital download as an MP3, free of digital rights management limitations. “We’ve been publicly trying to convince record labels that they should be selling MP3s for a while now,” says Yahoo!’s Ian C. Rogers. “Our position is simple: DRM doesn’t add any value for the artist, label (who are selling DRM-free music every day — the Compact Disc), or consumer, the only people it adds value to are the technology companies who are interested in locking consumers to a particular technology platform.” […]

Pingback by Podcasting News » Get Personal with Jessica Simpson — September 12, 2006 #
[…] Buy A Customized MP3 At Yahoo! MusicYou can buy a personalized version of the new Jessica Simpson song A Public Affair from Yahoo! Music s Web Site (Music.Yahoo.com) for $1.99, and it s an MP3. Dear digital consumer, even if you re not into Jessica Simpson, … […]

Pingback by Buy A Customized MP3 At Yahoo! MusicYou can buy a -- Centplus Tech — September 12, 2006 #
[…] Buy A Customized MP3 At Yahoo! MusicYahoo.com) for $1.99, and it s an MP3. Dear digital consumer, even if you re not into Jessica Simpson, and you re not excited about spending $2 for a song, let me tell you, … It s very expensive for companies like Yahoo! to implement. … […]

Pingback by Re: amv converterplz send me amv converter.Your Yahoo! is ShowingIn -- Centplus Tech — September 15, 2006 #
[…] I followed a story today that was on Slashdot about DRM (Digital Rights Management or Digital Restrictions Management). Ian Rogers posted some really good insight into DRM: As you know, we’ve been publicly trying to convince record labels that they should be selling MP3s for a while now. Our position is simple: DRM doesn’t add any value for the artist, label (who are selling DRM-free music every day — the Compact Disc), or consumer, the only people it adds value to are the technology companies who are interested in locking consumers to a particular technology platform. […]

Pingback by Steve's Software Trek » Blog Archive » DRM locks in consumers — September 16, 2006 #
[…] About the marketplace. The file format of the downloaded tracks is unknown right now, but I have a feeling it may be mp3 related. Yahoo Music has been trying for years, to get record companies to sell media sans the DRM. with only a single song to show for it. So it looks as though microsoft might give it a shot, a bit of an immovable object against an unstoppable force… […]

Pingback by Zune to make people go Kablooey! The Microsoft Zooney Tunes-- Bloggo 3000 — September 18, 2006 #
[…] Hollywood Records, owned by Disney, is going to sell Jesse McCartney’s new album “Right Where You Want Me” on Yahoo! Music as unprotected MP3 files. This is Yahoo’s second experiment with paid MP3 downloads, following the Yahoo! Music’s release of Jessica Simpson’s latest single as an unprotected MP3. […]

Pingback by Uninnovate.com » MP3s get called up to the Majors — September 20, 2006 #
[…] Buy A Customized MP3 At Yahoo! MusicYahoo.com) for $1.99, and it s an MP3. Dear digital consumer, even if you re not into Jessica Simpson, and you re not excited about spending $2 for a song, let me tell you, … It s very expensive for companies like Yahoo! to implement. … […]

Pingback by Yahoo Partners with Al Gore's Current TVClickZ reports Yahoo has -- Centplus Tech — September 22, 2006 #
Lo cierto es que Epic anunci󠬡 venta de este simple a trav鳠de la tienda de Yahoo! Music bajo dos condiciones: [1] que sea libre de DRM?s, lo cual permitirᠴransportarla hacia cualquier soporte; [2] y que sea obtenido de forma personalizada y el usuario est頥n una lista de nombres. http://www.lavamus.com

Comment by roger — September 24, 2006 #
I want to buy a metal detector but I don’t know which is the best. I found a lot of informations about that on http://www.METAL-DETECTOR-REVIEW.COM and I want to know more about which model is ideal for treasure hunting. Any recommendations would be appreciated, make and model, etc)

Thanks.

Comment by specialmedix — October 2, 2006 #
[…] Buy A Customized MP3 At Yahoo! MusicYou can buy a personalized version of the new Jessica Simpson song A Public Affair from Yahoo! Music s Web Site (Music.Yahoo.com) for $1.99, and it s an MP3. Dear digital consumer, even if you re not into Jessica Simpson, … […]

Pingback by Flea flickers are funEveryone was ready to gang up on -- Centplus Tech — October 2, 2006 #
[…] Buy A Customized MP3 At Yahoo! MusicYahoo.com) for $1.99, and it s an MP3. Dear digital consumer, even if you re not into Jessica Simpson, and you re not excited about spending $2 for a song, let me tell you, … It s very expensive for companies like Yahoo! to implement. … […]

Pingback by Yahoo's Browser Based Authentication LaunchedBeyond that, BBAuth also makes it -- Centplus Tech — October 3, 2006 #
Somebody used

Lavamus.com.? I wish to learn opinion. Personally the site has liked me. I have bought there a lot of music on 10 cents. Has spent already 150 dollars.

Comment by demien — October 11, 2006 #
[…] Buy A Customized MP3 At Yahoo! MusicYahoo.com) for $1.99, and it s an MP3. Dear digital consumer, even if you re not into Jessica Simpson, and you re not excited about spending $2 for a song, let me tell you, … It s very expensive for companies like Yahoo! to implement. … […]

Pingback by Financial failureI have been a financial train wreck lately. With -- Centplus Tech — October 12, 2006 #
Brilliant Ian. I havent bought anthing from iTunes for this reason. Please let us know when more songs go up as non-DRM’d MP3s, so we can support this movement in the download activity.

We´ll win …

Comment by music — October 14, 2006 #
[…] Buy A Customized MP3 At Yahoo! MusicYahoo.com) for $1.99, and it s an MP3. Dear digital consumer, even if you re not into Jessica Simpson, and you re not excited about spending $2 for a song, let me tell you, … It s very expensive for companies like Yahoo! to implement. … […]

Pingback by Day Two at Yahoo! Publisher Network in BurbankHe describes that -- Centplus Tech — October 18, 2006 #
[…] Today, I had opportunity to visit Yahoo! Music Blog’s July 19 entry, where not only did they mention the $1.99 Jessica Song in MP3 format, but also mentioned something even more important. As you know, we’ve been publicly trying to convince record labels that they should be selling MP3s for a while now. Our position is simple: DRM doesn’t add any value for the artist, label (who are selling DRM-free music every day — the Compact Disc), or consumer, the only people it adds value to are the technology companies who are interested in locking consumers to a particular technology platform. […]

Pingback by BambisMusings - Musings from a little deer? » DRM doesn’t add any value — October 29, 2006 #
[…] As Ian Rogers noted in the Y! Music Blog: “Dear digital consumer, even if you’re not into Jessica Simpson, and you’re not excited about spending $2 for a song, let me tell you, this is a bigger deal than you might think.” […]

Pingback by Plasma Diary » Archives » Yahoo! Music offers DRM-free promo — October 30, 2006 #
[…] Buy A Customized MP3 At Yahoo! MusicYou can buy a personalized version of the new Jessica Simpson song “A Public Affair” from Yahoo! Music’s Web Site (Music.Yahoo.com) for $1.99, and it’s an MP3. Dear digital consumer, even if you’re not into Jessica Simpson, and you’re not excited about spending $2 for a song, let me tell you, this is a […]Publ.Date : Wed, 19 Jul 2006 14:34:12 +0000 […]

Pingback by LyricalData — November 13, 2006 #
[…] Original post by iancr and software by Elliott Back […]

Pingback by Top Searched For Celebs » Blog Archive » Buy A Customized MP3 At Yahoo! Music — December 13, 2006 #
The mp3 format is still the best and easiest format for music on the internet. One nice thing about mp3 is you actually own the music! It is like owning the cd. The mp3 file is yours. That is the way it is suppose to be. I purchased it I own it!

Sincerely,

Bradley Gailey
http://www.greatindiemusic.com

Comment by bradleygailey — February 20, 2007 #
[…] As you can see, the bar is quite high. Not surprisingly, today there are very few players of any significance. Microsoft and Sony have closed systems. Yahoo Music tries to get by without a player. Undoubtedly, with a 70% + market share, the 800 pound gorilla in this industry is Apple. They not only have a gigantic market share, they have pricing power. […]

Pingback by 6 AM Pacific » Blog Archive » Apple and the Music Industry — March 4, 2007 #
[…] Bald alles DRM-frei? Bleibt zu hoffen, dass das nur ein zeitweiliges Phänomen war. Erste Online-Shops kommen ja bereits mit DRM-freier Musik. EMI, der drittgrößte Plattenriese, will seine Musik online als kopierschutzfreien MP3s anbieten. Bis Ende 2007 soll es soweit sein. Dieses Wochenende bietet Freenet 400.000 Songs ohne DRM an. Und schlußendlich experimentiert auch Yahoo seit einiger Zeit mit dem Vertrieb von uneingeschränkt nutzbarer MP3-Musik. […]

Pingback by Georg Holzer » Der beste Piratenschutz — March 31, 2007 #
[…] 19 2006 - Yahoo! and Sony BMG team up to sell DRM-free downloads of Jessica Simpson’s single “A Public Affair.” (Yahoo! has […]

Pingback by Amazon to Offer DRM-free MP3 Downloads »Technology News | Venture Capital, Startups, Silicon Valley, Web 2.0 Tech — May 16, 2007 #
[…] 19 2006 - Yahoo! and Sony BMG team up to sell DRM-free downloads of Jessica Simpson’s single “A Public Affair.” (Yahoo! has […]

Pingback by iAdvert.mobi » Amazon to Offer DRM-free MP3 Downloads — May 16, 2007 #
[…] 19 2006 - Yahoo! and Sony BMG team up to sell DRM-free downloads of Jessica Simpson’s single “A Public Affair.” (Yahoo! has […]

Pingback by Amazon to Offer DRM-free MP3 Downloads : Forecast-Blog — May 17, 2007 #
[…] Hay alternativas sin DRM de música que puedes escuchar donde quieras. […]

Pingback by 95 Tesis del activismo geek - Tordek — June 25, 2007 #

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Syndicate

RSS 2.0 Feed

Inside Yahoo! Music

Comment Policy

We encourage you to leave a comment here on ymusicblog.com and will likely read it when you do. However, we discourage you from being a complete jackass and may, at our sole discretion, remove comments if they are off topic, inappropriate, make fun of the way we dress, or otherwise violate our Terms of Service.

Buy A Customized MP3 At Yahoo! Music

91 Comments »

Leave a comment

Categories:

Syndicate

Inside Yahoo! Music

Comment Policy