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Mon, 12 Feb 2007 Yahoo Music, SanDisk chiefs urge labels to 'ditch DRM'

The boss of Yahoo Music says that MP3 tracks sell much better than DRM-laden music

Macworld staff

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A senior Yahoo chief has spoken out in favour of Apple CEO Steve Jobs' call for major labels to abandon digital rights technology (DRM).

Dave Goldberg, head of Yahoo Music, says that tracks sold through his service in MP3 format sell much faster than rights-protected tunes.

Silicon Valley Watcher reports that Goldberg believes DRM is confusing for consumers, also that the company has experimented by making music available free of DRM, and tracks sold in this way see more sales.

Goldberg is also heavily critical of the DRM system Microsoft licenses for a fee, saying it "doesn't work half the time".

The Yahoo boss believes that removing DRM would provide a boost to interoperability and widen the range of music services and devices available to consumers.

The Yahoo chief's thoughts were echoed by SanDisk founder and CEO Eli Harari, who wrote: "Proprietary systems aren’t acceptable to consumers. In recent months, there has been a rising chorus of complaints in Europe about the anti-competitive nature of closed formats that tie music purchased from one company to that company’s devices, and tie that company’s devices to its music service."

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