DRM Digital Rights Management

[kenco]

DRM costs revealed by Korean music service
2:54PM
A Korean digital music service has worked out the monetary 'value' of its DRM technology: about 12p per track.
Soribada has agreed a two-tiered pricing structure with the Korea Music Producers' Association (KMPA); tracks with DRM will cost 700 won, 41.4p, while unencumbered songs will be sold for 500 won, 29.6p.

As DRM Watch reports: 'The above figures can be read in a number of ways. Most importantly, they reflect the idea that users can do less with DRM-protected tracks than with unprotected ones, including some things that provide a better user experience....'

Freedom to Tinker notes that you could conclude, as DRM Watch implies, that because DRM-free tracks are 40 per cent cheaper, then they must be 40 per cent less useful. That would, however, be too simplistic.

'All we can conclude from the KMPA's pricing strategy is that DRM reduces customer value,' writes Freedom to Tinker's Ed Felten. 'But we knew that already.'

Simon Aughton

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/85840/drm-costs-revealed-by-korean-music-service.html