December 6, 2005

Another re-design and a DRM primer

Just a day after we announce Audible’s new re-design I notice that Simply Audiobooks now has a brand new site and that they are selling downloadable audio books. There’s certainly a lot going on in the audio book space. This brings the number of major audio book sites that have undergone significant re-launches/site re-designs in the last couple of months to three: Audible.com, SoundsGood.com and Simply Audiobooks.

Simply Audiobooks is selling downloads using the Microsoft Digital Rights Management (DRM). Unfortuately this means that they won’t be compatible with the Apple iPod. Here’s a quick primer on audio book DRM (for those that care):

-Digital Rights Managements or DRM refers to the technology that makes it difficult to illegally copy or share an audio book. For instance, you might be able to listen to an audio book you’ve purchased on two different computers but not on three. That would be an example of DRM in action.

-Apple’s DRM is called FairPlay and they do not license it. The only company that can use Apple’s DRM for spoken word audio is Audible.com and that arrangement is in place through 2007. What this means is that if you are looking to purchase an audio book with DRM you must go through Audible. Of course if the audio book does not have DRM (e.g., an MP3 file purchased here at LearnOutLoud) then you can play it on the iPod with no problems.

-Microsoft’s DRM is called PlaysForSure. Anything you purchase with the Microsoft DRM attached does play for sure…unless you happen to have an Apple iPod. This is definitely a downside of the Microsoft DRM since 75%+ off all portable media devices are iPods. The companies utilizing the PlaysForSure DRM include SoundsGood.com, Simply Audiobooks and Jiggerbug.

-While DRM does offer protection to publishers and content producers it isn’t without its downside. There can be compatability issues and other usability problems such as not being able consume your legally downloaded content as you would like to. There’s also an additional cost to implementing DRM.

Anyway, I’ve probably told you more than you ever wanted to know about DRM so I’ll stop for now. If you’ve got any thoughts or questions about DRM let’s continue the discussion in the forums.