eMusic: Making Money Selling Music Without DRM

"The Holy Grail of online music sales is the ability to offer iPod-compatible tracks. Like the quest for the mythical cup itself, the search for iPod compatibility has been largely fruitless for Apple's competitors, whose DRM schemes are incompatible with the iconic music player... Perhaps that's why eMusic CEO David Pakman sounds downright gleeful when he points out that "there's only two companies in the world that can sell to them - Apple and eMusic."

The article does well to point out the no-brainder decision of offering DRM-free high quality MP3's as a business model. If you are into smaller label music, you'll be surprised at the bands available on eMusic (White Stripes, Innocence Mission, Pixies, Interpol, the list goes on). At about $.25 per song, it might make sense to subscribe for a month or longer and grab some indie songs for 1/4 the cost at iTunes. Also, you can get 50 free songs when you first sign-up at eMusic here.

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