Warp Records says no to DRM, label stands up for customers

January 17, 2004

Thanks to Quakester2000 we know that Warp Records, an independent electronic U.K. music label, has launched a music store called Bleep. What's special about the store is that its entire catalog is unencumbered by any DRM restrictions. The price of the individual songs is a little higher than other online music stores but the quality of the songs is much better and, as said, after you buy the song you're completely free to do with it what you want.

"At the moment labels have skirted around the whole issue of making their catalogue available, often introducing various poorly-supported formats and DRM (digital rights management) complications in the process. We wanted to be the first to take a big step in what we believe is a positive direction, and see what happens," the company says in its FAQ.

Through its Bleep store, Warp prices the music slightly higher than the online kiosks that have trailed in the wake of Apple Computer's iTunes service. The quality is much higher too, using the GPL LAME encoder, Warp's catalog is encoded at 205 kbps (VBR), as opposed to the more common 160 kbps. Songs are available for $ 1.39 each - higher than the 99 cents set by iTunes and its copycats - but that forty cents buys the computer users a lot of freedom.

Shoppers at Bleep will discover no nasty surprises, and will have the confidence that they're not engaging in a Hollywood-controlled social engineering experiment. Warp simply places no restrictions on the music on offer. Once you've paid your money, you can Rip, Burn and Mix to your heart's content.

While pioneer online music services such as Emusic offered DRM-free music at a low bit rate they were thwarted by the major labels' reluctance to open their back catalogs. Meanwhile, the computer industry, albeit at times with some reluctance, generally stood fast against Hollywood-driven demands that personal computers cripple legitimate users' rights.

I personally think this is a very good development and hopefully other online music stores will soon follow. Who wants DRM restrictions on songs they purchased? I certainly don't. You can read the complete article here. The Bleep music store can be found via www.bleep.com.

Source: The Register