Post DRM Business Models

This is an interesting article by Tom Robinson about how record companies control the content they have bought from the artists. (For anyone who doesn't know, Tom Robinson is a UK based singer/songwriter, who had several hits in the 70's and 80's.)

We all know that record companies are the BAD GUYS and treat their musicians appallingly But the thing that interested my here was that Tom pointed out that most artists actually make their money from "secondary" activities, such as touring and merchandising. (I Assume this doesn't apply so much to the "superstars", but then they are a minority.)

Now that the cat is out of the bag and people are starting to realise that the isn't any "magic" technology that can keep content safe once it's in the field, various luminaries (Steve Jobs, Bruce Schnier, etc) are starting to muse about alternative business models that don't rely on perfect DRM. The model that Tom describes works very well for the artists in a "post DRM world". Not so good for the aggregators! (Record companies, in this case)

Of course, there is still a need for marketing, distribution, navigation, etc and lots of people are trying to lock up that market and take a slice because it's so temptingly scalable! DRM is the obvious first line of attack as it simply recreates the old model using electronic rather than physical distribution. It's also easier to justify a "closed" system if you can cite security.

Other people are trying to own the search space and bandwidth. However, I think that the good news is that these are basically commodities, so price competition should help both the consumers and producers.

I think we are in for an interesting few years.......