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Yahoo Offers DRM-Free Music Download

Posted on: Monday, 24 July 2006, 12:00 CDT

Yahoo has released its first digital rights management-free music track on its online music store. 'A Public Affair' by Jessica Simpson will cost $1.99 and will be compatible with all digital music players, including Apple's iPod.

Technology firms and record labels have argued that DRM, or copy protection, is necessary to prevent music piracy. Jessica Simpson's label, however, is Sony BMG.

According to Yahoo, DRM doesn't add any value for the artist, label or consumer, only technology companies gain by locking customers into a particular technology platform.

Yahoo says DRM is expensive to implement, and it would rather its engineers focused on personalization, recommendations, playlisting and community applications.

Yahoo has not confirmed the release of more DRM-free music tracks.

Source: Datamonitor

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