Hasta La Creative!

So Sony has finally bitten the bullet and starting January 15, 2008 will be offering there music catalog DRM-free. Hooray! In an attempt to regain some market share from our good friends at Apple, the clever folks at Sony have finally ditched DRM on at least some of their catalog. Yes, not all, just some — 37 albums by artists including Carrie Underwood, Jennifer Lopez and I’m hoping at least 35 others. But it gets better. Never mind that they were the last of the major labels to do so. Nor the fact that you can already purchase DRM-free music on iTunes, all be it for a premium. What really sets Sony apart is their ingenious model. Yes now if you want to buy Sony music online, you first have to go to an off-line retailer, buy a “Platinum MusicPass” then go online and visit MusicPass.com, where you then enter the code from the back of your card and finally get your music. Voila! Online music shopping really couldn’t get an easier than that. Amazing. And I’m assuming that because they are just so confident that hordes of people are going to run to stores, and then run home to buy their music they are not really promoting the new offering at all. Guess they’re counting on all that great word-of-mouth they hope to get.

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