Don’t stop playing that tune!
This an Article that appeared in the latest edition of debunk.
Increasingly in the digital age, companies are attempting and succeeding to exert more control over how we use the products we buy. In the modern world, purchase no longer equates to ownership and the consumer is being limited to how, where and when they use these products. Such is the case with music in the Internet age.
Most MP3s sold over the Internet now come with Digital Rights Management (DRM) software free of charge. DRM is a term referring to several technical methods used to control or restrict the use of digital media on certain devices. For example, DRM may prevent you from copying MP3s to a CD, MP3 player or computer.
Some argue that such an arrangement is necessary to protect the financial security of artists that produce the music we enjoy and is essential to prevent illegal copying of music and the loss of revenue this will cause. However transferring control over how music is used from the consumer to an increasingly consolidated and monopolised music industry will stifle innovation, encourage illegal downloading not prevent it and alter forever the relationship between the consumer and provider.
First of all, DRM fails to achieve what it sets out to do; protect the music. It has not stopped illegal downloading, but in many ways encouraged it. People are willing to buy music from the Internet to put on their IPods, but want to own it. Why pay the equivalent price of a CD to buy an album online, when you are severally limited to how you can play them? It also doesn’t come with a nice plastic cover, a shiny disc that can also be used as a Frisbee and a sleeve.
Secondly, many forget the innovation that has come from greater access and ownership. In the 1970s some kids wanted to go bike riding in the mountains but found that their racing bikes were inadequate. So over many months they took those racing bikes and modified them to turn them into what is popularly called today the Mountain Bike. DRM is not just the equivalent of telling those kids that they can’t alter their racing bikes, but that they can’t add a water bottle or a comfier seat. In the world of music, having the ability to experiment with these tunes has seen the advent of Mashups and sampling. DRM has the potential to stifle these new and exciting ideas and destroy future projects.
Modern technology has allowed unprecedented control to be exerted over the consumer. Companies no longer have to trust us to do what they want us to do with their products. They can now control it. This sadly will alter the relationship between consumer and producer forever.
Music is not the only example where ownership is being restricted. Recent popular game consoles; the Xbox, Playstation 2 and the new PSP, have also been tightly controlled. Those who have modified their XBox’s to surf the internet or chipped them so they can play games from other countries are being chased by legal action. The early versions of the PSP allowed people to create their own software for it. This was soon stopped by Sony. But they forget that allowing greater access makes them more money. It not only extends the life of products; the Sims is a good example of this where people can create their own worlds and post them on the Internet, but also creates new ideas.
In the globalised society, I fear music is just becoming another ubiquitous product, that we will increasingly have very little control over the products we buy and where the consumer is no longer king but a pawn.