Yahoo! testing selling music without DRM restrictions

Yahoo! testing selling music without DRM restrictions

This is big. Internet giants Yahoo! are test selling Jessica Simpson’s latest single in MP3 format. This means that the song lacks any DRM restrictions, which are usually present on songs sold through most digital music stores.

This also means that the song would be compatible with any digital music player out there including the hugely popular Apple iPod.

Users would also be able to use music editing programs to tinker with it. MP3 songs are usually popular on pirated networks for sharing music but this is perhaps the first time a regular digital music store is trying out selling DRM free music on the internet.

Yahoo Music Blogger Ian Rogers spoke on this new exciting development: “We’ve been publicly trying to convince record labels that they should be selling MP3s for a while now. DRM has a cost. It’s very expensive for companies like Yahoo to implement. We’d much rather have our engineers building better personalization, recommendations, playlisting applications, community apps, etc., instead of complex provisioning systems which at the end of the day allow you to burn a CD and take the DRM back off, anyway.”

The song is being sold for USD 1.99, which is significantly higher than what Apple iTunes and other stores charge for selling songs on the net.