daverea.com

It’s not all that frequently that you hear tech news bits as headlines on our local AM news station, but this morning something in the world of 1s and 0s got their attention: Amazon will be teaming up with EMI to offer DRM-free music in Q2/07. And Apple’s already got a deal in the works to offer DRM-free tracks on iTunes.

I doubt a link here will be necessary – you’ve probably already heard the story and read the press release. Explaining what “DRM” is should be equally unnecessary – if you’ve read this blog for any length of time, you’ve doubtless heard me complain about people’s willingness to accept DRM restrictions on their bought-and-paid-for content, and you’ve probably heard me talk up “fair-use”, too. If you haven’t, this might be a good time to try out daverea.com’s sexy “search” function. It’s cutting edge, yo.

So where does all this news leave us? Well, somebody finally listened. A couple of execs somewhere heard the cries of the seething throng (well, all 6 or 8 of us) calling for an end to DRM, and figured “heck, let’s give it a whirl.” And soon, we’ll have the opportunity to purchase DRM-free tunes.

Now it’s up to us.

We’ve been asking, begging and demanding that the record industry stop restricting how we use the music files that we spend our hard-earned coin on. We’ve been stealing the music when we don’t want to pay for a DRM-laden version of it, and we’ve been inventing all sorts of shady ways to strip off that DRM when it finally proves unavoidable. All the while, the record labels have been watching their sales slump, while we explain over and over that they need to embrace a new business model.

The time has arrived, kids – wallet time. We have a unique opportunity not often afforded to the advocates of freedom: we can prove just how well the thing we’re pushing for can work. So warm up your credit cards, ’cause it’s time to start buying. When the DRM-free services go live, we’ve got to use them! By following the age-old adage and putting our money where our mouths are, we’ll send a strong message: freedom works, and here’s the buck-or-so per song to prove it.

Let’s show the record companies, the software companies, and everyone who’s got a stake in (or a stake to throw at) DRM that a DRM-free business model works.