Sony BMG Confirms DRM-free Music Downloads, But ...

You'll recall earlier that sources indicated that Sony BMG was finally going to join the rest of the major music labels to drop DRM. Today that was confirmed, but ... and there's always a but, isn't there?

The ideal situation would have been simple downloads from say, Amazon MP3. But no, Sony had to add brick-and-mortar into the process. You will have to buy a gift card at a retail outlet and then use it on Sony's MusicPass site, and only that site. This new program, called Platinum MusicPass, will start on January 15th, according to a press release at the MusicPass site.

The way Sony's presenting this is like a collectible gift card. In fact, they say:

The cards themselves are high-quality collectibles featuring artist images and album information. They're a great choice whether you're buying for yourself, or as a gift for occasions ranging from a birthday to Valentine's Day.

According to the 2007 American Express Gift Card Survey, Americans plan to spend 25% of their total gift spending on gift cards, up from 13% in 2005. 61% of shoppers said they were planning to purchase at least one gift card, and on average intended to purchase a total of six cards.

Great, how about making it optional instead of mandatory?

At least the files will be MP3 format as opposed to the unprotected AAC files on iTunes.

According to the release, in the U.S., MusicPass cards will be available at Best Buy, Target, and Fred's on January 15th, with Trans World stores (Coconuts, FYE, Wherehouse, & Spec's) and Winn-Dixie rolling out the cards by the end of January.

Finally, they are only rolling out 37 titles to start. I don't know, seems like a half-hearted attempt to show they wanted to do it, but then if it fails they can say the "consumer didn't want it." Sigh.