In an interview with Billboard three EMI executives give their views on the history, today and the future of the record label. The interview is a great read and highly interesting. Especially the part where Doug Merrill, EMI's president of digital, commented on the label's decision to abandon DRM on iTunes and other download stores. Merrill said that the move towards MP3 only has been great for the company and that DRM in his eyes doesn't provide a value to the fan or the label. DRM was setting the wrong tone ...Read More

Abandoning DRM don’t increase piracy

To continue the series of Book-related posts there's now news that Google will open an iTunes-for-books. According to Silicon Alley Insider Google will soon open a U.S only store to sell digital copies of out-of-print copyrighted books. Newer books could be available for sale if publishers allow Google to sell them. Libraries can appearantly access the books for free, while college students will be able to sign up for subscription-based access. Google has previously received a lot of critisism for scanning copyrighted books and making advertising revenue on the indexed content ...Read More

iTunes for books. By Google.

Warner Bros. is about to try a new distribution model in South Korea. They will start releasing movies online two weeks before they are even available on DVD. This is a trial but if it proves successful it might get exported to China (the worlds largest market for home entertainment) and other countries. The move shows that Warner is the bravest and smartest Studio today - they've previously narrowed the release windows on DVD and VOD and today most movies are released the same day. The other Studios haven't made that ...Read More

Warner releasing digitally before physical

Finally someone from the film industry admits there's something wrong with DRM. Sony Pictures Television president John McMahon said a couple of days ago: DRM is one of the main reasons why people turn to file-sharing networks, instead of legal alternatives Great insight! I wonder how many are pissed off on this guy right now? Didn't expect this statement from a Studio, especially not from a company like Sony (which has a tradition of doing things their way and enforcing DRM on eh..everything). It kinda swept away the arguments for DRM. How can ...Read More

Sony admits: DRM increase piracy

The current hype regarding online video is around streaming and streaming services. Hulu was amongst the first to offer a broad range of content in good quality when it came earlier this year and now claim to serve millions of streams every day. Numbers are starting to come in and so far it looks like they attract a lot of consumers though studios say they have difficulties to monetize the free viewings. So exactly how well do free perform versus transactional viewings? I recently got some numbers from one company who trials both ...Read More

Free vs paid video on demand