Telus offers DRM-free music to cellphone customers

Telus announced Wednesday that it is the first cellphone carrier in Canada to offer wireless music free of digital rights management (DRM)—but the company will charge customers 30 cents per track to replace their DRM music. DRM limits what a users can do with songs or other media after they download them. Often, the technology will restrict a consumer from copying or using the files on other devices. For now, new DRM-free tracks will be sold with existing DRM music inventory in the Telus Music Shop. David Neale, Telus’ chief futurist and senior vice-president for strategic content services, told The Wire Report that the DRM-free launch coincided with the launch of Telus’ new HSPA network. The company’s increased wireless capacity made it possible to distribute the higher quality, and larger, DRM-free files, he said. According to a list of handsets now compatible with the Telus Music Shop, only 12 out of 45 Telus phones support the DRM-free files. Those handsets are mostly advanced smart phones by RIM, HTC, Nokia, Samsung and LG. Telus uses the same advanced audio codec (AAC) music files as Apple. But Neale said most new phones will support the DRM-free files. Apple made a similar move in 2009 following a deal with major music labels EMI, Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group to remove DRM. The major labels were initially against DRM-free music because they saw the technology as a way to curb copyright infringement. Other Canadian online music stores such as Zunior and eMusic offer DRM-free music downloads. “I think it’s probably reasonable to assume that Telus was quite willing to offer up this kind of service long ago,” said Michael Geist, the Canada research chair in Internet and e-commerce law at the University of Ottawa. “The holding point for a long time was the labels themselves, who were adamant that DRM was an absolute necessity.” Neale said the music industry didn’t understand the mobile market very well at the start. Neale said it took a year to educate the industry about the capabilities of newer handsets and wireless networks for distributing higher quality music. In a release, Telus said it would charge customers 30 cents per track to remove DRM from songs bought prior to the decision. “In some ways it’s kind of a slap in the face to the people who have purchased it in the first place,” Geist said. “Those are frankly your best customers. They were willing to buy it even in the DRM world.” Neale said the DRM-free music had to be licensed separately from the music Telus already had in its inventory. “ is basically for the new inventory and the new licensing,” he said. The Telus Music Shop offers more than 2.5 million songs for prices ranging from 69 cents to $1.29 per track. Customers can also download full albums at an average of $9.99 for an album. “I seriously anticipate that mobile devices will ultimately all have wireless and be the centre of the media that you consume,” Neale said. “I think that this is another major nudge along the way.”

Telus offers DRM-free music to cellphone customers

Broadcast | February 10, 2010

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