EMI Says Initial Sales Of DRM-Free Tracks Look Good

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from the nice-to-hear dept

EMI’s DRM-free tracks have been available through the iTunes Music Store for a few weeks now, and an EMI exec told a conference in New York this week that the initial sales reports are positive. The exec cited several albums that have seen big increases in sales since the launch of iTunes Plus, leading some to wonder how many of the sales are coming from upgrades. The conclusion is that the DRM-free tracks are getting an early bump from people upgrading old purchases from DRM-restricted to DRM-free (and higher quality), and that they’ll soon tail off, once everybody’s upgraded their library. This could be true, and upgrades could certainly explain the big pop that some older albums, like Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon are seeing, but such strength from upgrades really underlines the popularity of DRM-free music, and establishes that people are willing to pay for it. After all, while upgrades in iTunes only cost 30 cents, that’s still 30 additional cents people are spending for a piece of music they’ve already purchased — and it’s 30 cents of new revenue for the retailer and record label. Furthermore, even if unit sales held steady, EMI’s DRM-free tracks sell at a higher price than those encumbered with copy protection, so it behooves the label to replace sales of locked-down singles with DRM-free ones. It doesn’t seem too surprising to see EMI have some success with selling tracks free of pointless copy protection, but hopefully its public comments will help convince other labels to take the plunge.