EMusic Sells 100 Millionth Song without DRM

Online music seller eMusic is second only to DRM-laden iTunes for legitimate online music sales. Most of its library of 2 million songs comes from independent labels. It's success proves that consumers are more than willing to pay fair prices for DRM-free music. While it took the eMusic two years to sell its first 50 million songs, it has taken less than a year to sell the next 50 million.

Dales Comment:  While I applaud eMusic, it too has a business model that I don't like. While individual songs can be purchased, their business model requires the user to pay a minimal subscription fee every month. Song purchases are deducted from the monthly fee. If you spend more than the fee, then you have to pay extra.  My perfect world of music sales is to buy DRM-free songs with no minimum monthly commitment. I would be able to buy as many or as few as I want. Frankly, I'd like eMusic service to mimic that of AllofMP3.com's. Charge a fair per song price, allow me to purchase whatever I want in whatever format I want. That is a service I'd use!

Sources: Washington Post | MacWorld | Sydney Morning Herald | TopTechNews| Tech Dirt | MP3.com | CNet Blogs | PC-Pro | Pocket-Lint

Related Posts:

• Steve Jobs Calls for the End of DRM for Online Music Sales (February 7, 2007)
• Wired Article: Signs Music Industry May be Abandoning DRM (January 8, 2007)
• EMusic Sells 100 Millionth Song without DRM (December 15, 2006)
• EMI's Blue Note & Yahoo! Music Sell a Few More Songs DRM Free (December 6, 2006)
• ifpi Board Member Quoted as Saying Major Labels About to Abandon DRM (November 27, 2006)
• First a Song, Now a DRM-Free Album - Yahoo! (September 19, 2006)
• Weird Al Yankovic's New Single: Don't Download this Song (August 23, 2006)
• Yahoo! Offers DRM-Free Jessica Simpson Song (July 20, 2006)
• Yahoo! Exec Says Labels Should Sell Music Without DRM (February 24, 2006)

Digg Del.icio.us