The iTunes Music Store may be the first to offer DRM-free songs from EMI artists, but the Zune Marketplace won’t be far behind. Microsoft has plans to make the premium tracks available for download from its online store in the near future, and believes this move can only help promote healthier competition between the Zune and the iPod.
It was no secret that Apple CEO Steve Jobs was on hand when EMI made the announcement this week that it would be removing Digital Rights Management (DRM) from its online catalog. After all, the iTunes Music Store, as well as the iPod, are the driving forces in the digital music industry right now.
Microsoft, however, believes that Jobs’ presence may represent a bit of dramatic irony as such a shift in strategy from the record labels could represent more benefit to the Zune than the iPod.
“This does open things up a little bit,” Zune Marketing Director Jason Reindorp said in a CNET article. “It potentially makes the competition more on a device-to-device or service-to-service basis. It will force the various services to really innovate.”
Microsoft doesn’t have a current time frame on when the unprotected tracks will be added to the Zune Marketplace. Apple expects to have the DRM-free songs available for download to iTunes users by May. One would assume that the music would be offered to Zune users shortly thereafter.
If all the record labels eventually come on board with this model, and device interoperability is achieved, the competition could shift from devices to the actual music services themselves.
If users can go to the Zune Marketplace or the iTunes Music Store and download the same tracks, then traditional factors such as price start to come into play. Audio quality is also an important component that will drive competition between Microsoft and Apple, as users are beginning to desire the option to download higher bitrate tracks, even if it costs them a little bit more to do so.
So while Steve Jobs enthusiastically applauded EMI’s decision to go DRM free, one has to wonder if this could be the beginning of the end for the Apple/iTunes stranglehold on the industry.
