by mr. travis

In the ever-struggling battle between the major record labels and the future of the recording industry, a new level of stupidity has emerged as the largest of these labels, the Universal Music Group (who encompass other labels such as Interscope, Geffen, etc. etc.) has taken their fight to Apple’s ITunes, specifically regarding distribution rights as well as the DRM (digital rights management) technology that is encoded with every song purchased through the company. Steve Jobs, the CEO for Apple as well as one of the leaders in the new digital music world has in recent months gone on the offensive in the ongoing controversy regarding DRM technology, going as far as to state publicly that he wanted it eliminated from the legal downloading sector. While the financial implications of such a move would highly benefit Apple, it would be mutually beneficial for the labels, especially Universal with their ever expanding catalog to go such a route. Unfortunately, Universal has put up a posturing front; from threatening to pull their catalog from ITunes to “testing” their DRM-free music downloads through lower-tier services such as Rhapsody or Wal-Mart. With the volatile state of the music industry in constant flux, a move like this by the largest major distributor could have disastrous implications resulting from such a stupid and risky move.
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