Categories
content strategy

KCRW / eMusic.com collaboration


I happened upon this just the other day – KCRW in Santa Monica has a deal with eMusic.com. A cursory search reveals only a couple of KCRW-related titles are available for download. One begins to wonder about the specifics of this promotion…

On a related note, an article in today’s edition of USA Today points out the fact that eMusic.com is #2 in digital music sales, right after the #1 iTunes. The hook for eMusic is their exclusivity among the big digital music retailers in using a non-DRM [Digital Rights Management] locked format. By that I mean the music files downloaded from that site can be played on any player. The other guys require some sort of proprietary technology.

The USA Today article focused on the release of a single from an artist on Sony/BMG Records in the non-DRM format. The irony of Sony, a company so in love with ill-fated proprietary formats [BetaMax, MiniDisc, and the fast-fading SuperAudio CD] releasing a proprietary-DRM-free digital single [with much fanfare] is quite amusing.

Link to USA Today article and to eMusic.com.