Will DRM Hurt iTMS As The Digital Home Becomes More Popular?

Today P.O.D.’s Testimony is out and I was about to buy it at iTunes Music Store. Then I saw the price. $13.99. Mmm, do I want to pay the same price for a DRM protected album as what I could get it for at Wal-Mart for, I thought. Sure, it comes with two videos, but I’m in it for the music, not the moving pictures. I sat long and hard looking at the “Buy Album” button and then went to JHymn’s site to see if it had fixed the iTunes 6.x problem. A new version was released last week, but not to fix the issue that I was hoping. Ugh. What to do? I closed iTunes and resolved to buy it at Wal-Mart.

Why? Because I don’t feel it’s right for Apple, or anyone, to tell me what I can do with my purchased product. GM doesn’t tell me I can only drive my Grand Prix GTP on certain streets or tell me that I can only use the seats in that specific car. So why should Apple or the RIAA tell me that I can’t listen to something on my Sonos? Or my car CD player that reads AAC files? Or wherever? Why? According to the Copyright Act Law of 1976, they shouldn’t. (Sony, remember that law? YOU were the reason for it! Traitors.)

So now I’m going to give Wal-Mart my money instead of Apple so I can do what I want with my music. With that, the question arises, will DRM hurt iTMS’ (and other sites’) sales? While the majority of the public will be corralled into doing as the Man says, others won’t. And once the digital home becomes more and more common, then the majority of the public that once didn’t care will when they find out they can’t play their latest music on the HDTV because it’s the tenth device in their digital hub and that’s just too many devices. Or when they attempt to play something on an older device and it won’t work. Will the whiplash be great?

I think as more people start adding more equipment to their digital home, such as Sonos ZonePlayers, then CD sales will be once again on the rise… or illegal trading (again). While Apple should get credit for helping levy some of the restrictions off the consumer, it didn’t go all out for the consumer. Not sharing FairPlay isn’t fair to the consumer and I think Apple is going to find that out really soon. It may take a year or two, but it will happen if DRM continues to prevent the consumer and rightful owner from doing what ever they want to do with it. Now excuse me while I make a trip to Wal-Mart.

[tags]drm,riaa,itms,sales,the man[/tags]