Microsoft still has Lat Am Music industry in its hands

AFTER the house of cards that is Digital Rights Management began to crumble when EMI, Apple and finally Amazon announced plans to offer DRM-free digital music for sale, I naively wondered when the DRM-free music was coming South.

UbbiMusica.com one of the legal WMA-DRM download sites down under

So, last month I decided to contact the local branch of EMI, voicing my concern over DRM-infected WMA files offered in the local digital music sites, and naming 10Musica.com as an example of what's wrong with it. The question was quite simple: when will consumers in South America finally have the option of DRM-free legal music downloads?. The firm's PRperson, Diego Perri said "there is not many determinations yet... the only thing I can tell you is that there's more stores (besides 10Musica.com) which sell digital music locally, like UbbiMusica.com and ZapMusica.com.

10Musica.com says iPod owners should get with the program and get another player

After showing off an excellent example of PR evasive manoeuvring and not answering my question, I insisted, and finally was left empty handed, with this reply: "Definitive... there's nobody at the company with a precise panorama of these subjects and who know what can be and cannot be said". He ended his contact with a promise "when we have a clear idea of what will be done, we'll get back in touch". Ouch!.

UbbiMusica.com makes the WindowsMedia restriction quite clear

Just for the record, I have been patiently for a month, awaiting any official notification from the firm. It seems they are still thinking about it. And to this day, I looked at sites pointed to me by EMI Argentina: 10Musica.com, UbbiMusica.com, and ZapMusica.com, and these three provide DRM-infected music, and of course restrict people to use Windows Media Player to, say, burn tracks to a CD, or to use portable players which pay the WMA/DRM Tax to Redmondia. Tracks on 10Musica.com and UbbiMusica.com sell for around 1.12 dollars a piece. I was unable to find ZapMusica.com pricing as the site is apparently restricted to Fibertel's cable broadband subscribers - a double restriction, bravo, my head is spinning already.

ZapMusica.com ... same old WMA-DRM story!

Perhaps the FAQ page at the music downloads site owned by local media mogul Daniel Hadad, 10Musica.com, is the most verbose on the restrictions. It also portrays the MP3 players that lack WMA DRM compatibility as somewhat inferior or outdated. It reads: "10Musica sends content in WMA format. We use this format because it offers a high sound quality and is compatible with the majority of PCs and portable devices". It then gives a kick in the teeth to iPod owners: "Unlike the majority of new devices, the iPods cannot play [they forgot "our DRM-infected"] WMA files. We recommend the use of devices compatible with MP3 and WMA".

Of course some evil people could quickly jump to the wrong conclusion and may think that Microsoft has the local music industry in its pocket hands, but of course we have no proof to say that, they are all acting in the best interests of the consumers, probably. But someone should point out that all these firms are strangely going against the anti-DRM wave that is sweeping the developed world. µ

See Also
EMI, Apple, to go DRM-free
EMI has DRM-free sales boom
Amazon music store to dump DRM
(2004) Mindawn, a Role Model for Digital Music sales

L'INQS
Sandisk praises DRM-free Amazon store
EMI says DRM-free music is selling well
Attorney General, EMI, settle Payola probe
Sony BMG settles Payola probe
Pay to play: Music Industry's Dirty Little Secret
e-Music in Argentina, a case study
Forbes - Why Vista's DRM is bad for you