Hello I'm Rich Brown and this is my personal website and blog. I'm just your simple, average, down to earth, professional, out gay man and aspiring circuit boy, living in Phoenix, Arizona with a few things to say while trying to find my place among all the scary, conservative, religious nuts in this sick and twisted world.
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Digital Rights Management, Yes or No?
I've been thinking about this issue for some time now. I started to write this long and boring post about digital rights management, what it was and blah, blah, blah. I deleted and started again.
I think while I fundamentally disagree with the premise of DRM because I think people should have the right to do what they want with the music they purchase, I can understand why it's been put in place. It's a simply control mechanism just like everything else to attempt to keep people from stealing media. Can you honestly say that if you had the opportunity to download any music you wanted free of charge that you would actually ever pay for it? No probably not. It's human nature to want to obtain the things you want as cheaply as possible, and it doesn't get any cheaper then free.
I don't know maybe I'm a fool when it comes to this because I actually do pay for and have paid for most of the music I own. In fact I pay quite often because I tend to download a lot of music and buy numerous CDs. I will admit that I have used one of the peer-file sharing networks to try and find a particular song to preview or one that was unreleased, but once I find the song I'm looking for, I almost always go ahead and either buy the CD or pay to download the song. Sometimes even both, depending on how much I want the music. I know it sounds ridiculous, but I just have a conscious about the whole stealing music thing. It's not me. Justin and I have a good deal of cash tied up in downloaded music as well as purchased cds and dvds.
For me though the bigger reason I pay to buy music is more an issue of quality rather then conscious. I simply want a high quality copy of the music that I listen too. Trust me, in my younger days when the Internet was first booming and Napster was an underground file sharing network, I tried downloading music from other people only to find out that 9 times out of 10 I was disappointed with the quality of the song that I downloaded. Either it was cut in the wrong place, the bit rate was off, something was inconsistent with the quality or it just didn't sound right. What was usually a fervent search for someone that had a particular song I was looking for turned into a disappointment and more often a complete waste of time.
Maybe it's the fact that I just don't have the time and or patience to weed through all the junk on the peer file sharing networks anymore, or maybe it's the fact that I have a bit more disposable income these days, but it comes down to the simple truth that I want simplicity and quality, and without actually buying the original CD or downloading an official copy, you have no real control over the quality of the music, the cut positions, the bit rate, where it came from, or even what's embedded into the file.
I guess I was thinking about this lately because I read something regarding the release of Tony Moran's new compilation titled 'The Event'. I read that Tony chose not to release this CD through a major label so that he could have tighter control of what he wanted on the CD and what it was going to sound like. I think his decision was commendable because I always oppose label interference in creativity, but it really led me to question if he is taking a bigger financial risk as well since many of the major labels have DRM controls put into place with much of their music to prevent sharing and maximize revenue.
I normally wouldn't have given this too much thought, but I really do like this CD, actually I like it a lot. It's probably one of the best Circuit Dance CD compilations I've heard in a very long time, and while I had a copy of the entire CD sent to me in MP3 format, I still proceeded to purchase an official copy of my own. It made me feel good to know that I was supporting an artist and music that I truly enjoyed.
So all this has really led me to wonder if not enough people purchase this CD, will it discourage people like Tony Moran from putting out a CD like this in the future. So that question brings me full circle back to DRM. Useful or not? If you can download (steal) the music for free but there is no new music because the profit for creating and releasing music altogether has disappeared, is it worth it?
I'll just leave it at that because I know there are arguments both for and against DRM and there are certainly other people much more qualified to debate this issue then I. I'm just providing a few of my thoughts and feelings to mill over. I still don't know where I personally stand with DRM and frankly I don't really even care in the end, because either way I'll continue to purchase the CDs and pay to download the music I want. Cheers!
