SecuritySony To Distribute DRM-free Songs.
New York (NY) - Yes, even we thought it might never happen, but Sony BMG has apparently waved the white surrender flag on DRM and plans on distributing a portion of its music collection as DRM-free songs. According to Business Week, Sony has been testing out DRM-free songs for several months and plans on doing a major rollout starting with next month"s Super Bowl.
On February 3rd, Sony plans on giving away a huge collection of songs - part of 1 billion songs total - when it participates in a big Super Bowl event with Pepsi. For most of 2007, Sony has also been giving away promotional DRM-free clips of songs that have sold less than 100,000 units.
Sony hasn"t announced if or when it will make its entire collection DRM-free, but this is at least a good start for anti-DRM groups. Sony"s move follows similar DRM-free campaigns by the other three major record labels; Warner Music, EMI and Vivendi. Those three companies all embraced DRM-free music in 2007.