So I was listening to Ken Kennedy’s podcast about the Microsoft/Yahoo buyout potential and it inspired me to blog about Amazon’s purchase of Audible.com.  The mega-retailer announced in January that it will acquire the audiobook provider for $300 million dollars.  This is probably a good thing, but let’s look at some of the possibilities that can come of this merger.

• Amazon “gets it” when it comes to DRM.  Amazon MP3 is offering DRM-free, high-quality MP3 music downloads from every label that they support.  Audible, on the other hand, requires each author that wants their book to be distributed by Audible.com to have DRM.  Let’s hope Amazon wins that battle.
• Amazon has name recognition.  Though Amazon has only been around four years longer than Audible (Amazon launched in 1995 and Audible in 1999), Audible is hardly a household name, despite being the one of the largest audiobook retailers in the world.  Just by sake of name, Audible will get more traffic as Amazon Audiobooks than as Audible.com
• Amazon intermixes their audiobook line with all their other products.  One nice thing about Audible is that their entire site is about audiobooks eliminating confusion on what you are buying.  If Amazon decides to integrate the products into their site instead of preserving the Audible.com site, then you will have to filter your results by Audiobook and HOPEFULLY, there would be a way to separate Audiobooks on CD from Audiobook MP3’s
• Amazon has a lot more money than Audible.com.  It took Audible ten years to hit the 45 thousand title mark.  Hopefully, it will take only a fraction of that time for Amazon to reach the 90 thousand mark.
• Amazon includes audiobook titles in their “Better Together” promotions.  “Buy this book with the audiobook today!” 
• Amazon may eventually change Audible’s file format from being a proprietary file format to a standard like MP3.  This would allow any MP3 player to play audiblebooks versus having a supported devices list.

I don’t think that the 250 former Audible.com/new Amazon employees will have a significant impact on the rest of the 17,000 employee base at Amazon.  Amazon’s internal culture is pretty safe from this new external influence.All-in-all, I think this acquirement makes total sense.  When I think of books, I go to Amazon.  It is a logical extension for me to think of Amazon for audiobooks as well.

And there you have it.

DRM (Digital Rights Management) is one of those things that was created with good intentions, but managed to punish the honest consumer.

If you were to purchase a music file that has embedded DRM, you are not buying the use of the music, you are renting the use of it.  For example, if you purchase an album from the iTunes store or an audiobook from Audible.com, tracking is embedded in the digital files you receive. Attempting to copy these files to a different machine, your laptop for example, will be prompt a user name and password request from the account that you used to purchase the media.  This, in turn, contacts a server representing the organization from which the media was purchased and authorizes it as a legal copy.

While DRM is meant to reduce/eliminate digital media piracy, and it does not seem to be a problem when the media is purchased legally, it is not always the case.

First, DRM usually limits the number of times you can “authorize” your media to five.  So if you are a person like me, who reloads his computer 2 to 3 times a year, even if I take great care not to lose my digital media, it becomes useless after the 5th time I authorize it to my computer anyways.  It is my understanding, that Apple (and surely others), will reset your authorized limit if you call them.  But what happens if Apple decides to discontinue the resets or discontinues the service, or worst case, goes out of business altogether!  Yes, I realize that Apple will probably be around for as long as I live, but what about Audible or some other small company?  Will this damage the growth and/or creation of new companies that retail digital media because there is no guarantee that they will be around two years down the road?

Second, DRM prevents you from converting the file.  For example, Audible distributes its audiobooks in a proprietary format that many digital players (iPods for example) can play natively.  However, what if I have a device that isn’t supported (i.e. Microsoft’s Zune), I can’t transcode the audiobook into a format like MP3 that the Zune can easily handle.  That just sucks!

My point is, companies that employ DRM in the media that the sell, hold that media hostage without most consumers even being aware.

I now take every DRM’d media file that I own and send it through a time consuming DRM cleaning process.  I convert the DRM to a CD/DVD image which removes the DRM and then RIP that image back to my desired format.

Audible has partnered with Nero to created a version that can burn the Audible file format (AA) to CDs.  If they support converting their files to a different format (CDA), in this case, one that removes the DRM, why try prevent me from transcoding it to MP3?!?

Let’s face it, hackers have already busted this wide open.  There are many free applications to remove DRM without having to go the Burn-to-CD-and-RIP route.  Just like gun new laws would only prevent honest people from owning guns, DRM only prevents honest people from copying media and many times unrightly so!

I just want to be able to freely use the digital media that I purchased.  DRM stunts the transition from physical media (CDs/DVDs) to digital media.  I for sure would rather spend my money on a CD, knowing that I can RIP it to any format and as many times as I want, usually, for the same price!

Some companies get it, though.  Sony-BMG is offering media that is free of DRM.  Amazon offers almost 3 million DRM free tracks in its music selection.  iTunes even has about 2 million in its repository.

Hopefully we will see the demise of DRM in the near future without an uprising of a different breed of copy-protection.

</rant>