Rogers Wireless can’t wait to offer DRM-free music

Removing digital rights management (DRM) protections from online music is a pivotal step in growing Canada's legitimate online music market, says an executive with Rogers Wireless. While Rogers is promoting its indie music portal Redpipe.ca through an upcoming online battle of the bands, it may have to wait for record labels to drop their digital protection measures to substantially increase use of the Rogers MusicStore. "We support our label partners' requirements for DRM protection, (but) we also support the progress they're making at offering tracks to the customer that aren't encumbered by DRM," says Robyn Walters, director of music, portal and content. "As those requirements start to loosen up we look forward to offering our customers (DRM-free tracks)." Launched three years ago with a stable of about 200,000 tracks, Rogers MusicStore now offers 1.8 million tracks. The lack of songs and albums available through legitimate online services in Canada has consistently been offered as justification for file sharing , so content-rich services like Rogers' should be seen as part of the solution to grow the for-pay online music market. However, not only do fans have to pay for songs from the Rogers MusicStore - per track or $20 for an all-you-can-eat package - but they are limited by DRM protections in how they can transfer those tracks to other electronic devices. "I think a key step in growing the legitimate music market will be to offer content to our customers that is unencumbered by DRM," adds Walters. "That's one more reason for a customer to pay for something that they feel they can get for free." Speaking of free, Rogers' second music service, Redpipe.ca, allows unsigned bands to post music that is available for free download to PCs or for a $1 per track delivery charge to cell phones. In its first year of operation the portal has experienced great traction amongst independent bands with more than 1,000 uploading songs to the site. To bring fan interest in step, Rogers, along with HMV, Universal Music Canada and Fontana North, are launching an online battle of the bands for a $25,000 recording prize. "Our first step was to get a critical mass of bands on the site, and now it's initiatives like this recording prize where there's voting on the site is designed to drive engagement for fans," says Walters. Between April 15 and May 31 fans can vote for their favourite artist or band on the site, comprising a top 10 list. Then a jury of representatives from the three sponsoring companies will pick the overall winner, who on June 6 will receive $5,000 in cash and $20,000 for recording and releasing an album. Fontana North is providing the marketing and promotional support for the winning artist, as well as physical distribution, Universal is providing digital distribution, and HMV will rack the winning artist's album in its stores across Canada. So while the Internet has long been viewed as an advantageous medium for unsigned bands to achieve exposure, old media still has its place. "I think that any band looking to emerge in the industry has to consider still physical sales," says Walters. "So when we were looking to put together an interesting contest for emerging bands we needed to include the physical component. Even though digital sales are through the roof and will continue to be a bigger and bigger part of the total pie, no emerging band can ignore the physical space."

Rogers Wireless can’t wait to offer DRM-free music

News | 03/14/2008 5:52 pm EDT

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