Warner Music Announces Sales Move

Boston (dbtechno) - Most of the industry involved in media and music are rabid about making sure that their products cannot be illegally copied. The recent decision by Warner Music Group to market and sell albums and songs without any anti copying software is a surprise move to many.

Warner Music plans to sell their music product via Amazon. Com’s start up digital music service. The plan by Warner Music to not require copy protection seems at odds with their corporate zest for protecting their interests.

This action is a step in the overall decline of copy protection software. There is a lot of confusion among consumers regarding the format, usage, and licenses regarding downloaded music and media material.

Up to now it was believed that Warner was especially reluctant to drop the music protection that such software offers. Other companies such as Sony BMG have said publicly that they plan to continue using copy protection software to protect their media usage and restrict unlimited copying.

Privately there is a rumor that many music executives are supporting dropping copy protection altogether. EMI Group has already begun to sell music that is unprotected through iTunes distribution. This happened in April 2007.

Many people in the industry believe that if they drop music protection from downloaded works of music and other media that they will be better positioned to compete with the moves and business strategy that Apple Inc. seems to be pursuing. The major record company labels have been frustrated with the way that Apple prices music, among other issues.

These moves by Warner follow about four months after Universal Music announced that it would sell music without any restrictions or copy protection. They plan to sell and distribute music through Wal-Mart, Amazon, Real networks, but not the Apple iTune plan.