Microsoft set to unlock EMI songs
The software giant is on the verge of a deal similar to Apple's with EMI to sell tracks without anti-piracy protection — Microsoft has hinted that it may be close to reaching a deal with EMI to sell songs without anti-piracy protection via its Zune platform.
Context & Ripple Effects
The story sits at the opening of the DRM-free era in download retail. Apple's deal with EMI to sell tracks without anti-piracy protection is confirmed, and syndication across MarketWatch and Business Week — under headlines about an Apple probe shaking up the industry and a digital-music standards war — shows how widely the DRM question had already travelled by early April 2007.
Microsoft's move would extend its November 2006 music deal push onto new ground: the Times of London reports the company has hinted it is close to an EMI arrangement to sell unprotected tracks through Zune. The claim is unconfirmed — a rumored deal, not a signed one — but the fact that EMI's experiment is drawing a second major platform within days is itself the news.
First-order effects
- If the rumored deal lands, Zune gains DRM-free EMI content on par with what Apple secured from the label, removing a catalog-format disadvantage in the Zune-vs-iTunes matchup.
- EMI becomes the first label running its unprotected catalog across two competing storefronts at once, testing whether DRM-free pricing holds outside a single platform.
Second-order effects
- The remaining major labels face a squeeze: withholding DRM-free licenses from one platform pushes buyers toward whichever store carries them, weakening the labels' collective bargaining position against both Apple and Microsoft.
- Business Week's 'standards war' framing signals the fight shifts from devices to file formats and compatibility — a battle where Microsoft's Zune ecosystem and Apple's FairPlay-installed base are directly opposed.
Third-order effects
- A two-platform DRM-free market would push the industry toward unprotected files as the download norm, converting copy protection from a retailer requirement into a label choice and shifting negotiating leverage toward whoever aggregates demand.
- If EMI's experiment proves out across platforms, the durable structure is a split between premium DRM-free tiers and protected budget catalogs — with regulators already circling Apple, per the MarketWatch pickup, adding compliance pressure to the commercial one.
The trend: Music labels are moving from DRM as a uniform requirement to DRM-free licensing as a per-label, per-platform negotiation — with EMI's deals turning copy protection into competitive currency between Apple and Microsoft.