DRM is Dead: Sony To Become Last Label to Drop It

By Stephen Silver

An era passed in the annals of music downloading this week, when Sony BMG became the last of the major music industry consortiums to drop digital rights management. According to Business Week, Sony is “finalizing plans” to do so, and it will happen at some point in the first quarter.

EMI and Universal Music Group announced in mid-2007 that they were dropping DRM, and Warner Music Group agreed to do so in December, selling music through Amazon’s Web site.

Sony has not yet announced plans as to what they will do with the non-DRM songs, but BusinessWeek reported that one of Sony’s most popular artists, Justin Timberlake, will headline a major ad campaign, launching with the Super Bowl in February, of free distribution of songs on Amazon.com.

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