Universal Music Group to offer DRM free music for a limited time period

Universal Music Group to offer DRM free music for a limited time period

This is huge. Universal Music Group has announced that they are going to test offer DRM free music for a limited time period.

The company would make available digital tracks from thousands of albums featuring artists including Sting, 50 Cent and Stevie Wonder in MP3 format without any DRM.

The music would be made available on the recording artists’ Web sites and music retailers online.

Surprisingly, they are not going to sell these songs on Apple iTunes which is the largest music store on the web. The songs would however be compatible with the Apple iPods.

Till now, EMI has been the only major music publisher to offer versions of its songs with higher audio quality without any DRM technology.

Doug Morris, UMG’s chairman and CEO spoke on this interesting initiative: “Universal Music Group is committed to exploring new ways to expand the availability of our artists’ music online, while offering consumers the most choice in how and where they purchase and enjoy our music. This test, which is a continuation of a series of tests that UMG began conducting earlier in the year, will provide valuable insights into the implications of selling our music in an open format.”

This test run would continue from August 21 till January 31 next year.

The company added that they would compare the sales data of this music with the sales on the Apple iTunes store.

However, it could also be their way of challenging the domination of Apple iTunes in this market by supporting other music retailers online.