This article presents 7 reasons why MP3 (sans DRM) might be more widely adopted by the industry.  However, are these all truly 'reasons,' or some statement so compelling that it must be true?  Let's try a different perspective, rather than only mentioning what someone could read with one's own eyes.

1)         "When CD sales tank completely..."  What evidence is there to support this occurring?  Currently, iTunes is still a major force to be reckoned with, and although Emusic may be the #2 retailer for digital downloads, in reality it doesn’t have sufficient clout to force the industry in a different direction, away from DRM.  The only way the ‘labels’ would be immediately forced to go non-DRM is by legislation (the French Parliament had the chance to end DRM, but knuckled under from pressure by Apple) or court decision (the recent French court that fined Sony for unclear terms on the ‘portability’ of Sony downloadable music avoided forbidding DRM, so only the upcoming Scandinavian case v. Apple might have a chance to end DRM).

2)         Watermarked MP3s do indeed sound like a novel idea, since they would collect statistics on how often the file was played and would allow the file to be followed.  This could result in fairer and more equitable payment to artists, something that should finally be done.

3)         Amazon will start selling MP3s by April?  This is clearly pointed out to be rumor, so unless there’s some official confirmation, this won’t scare the industry as a whole into possibly changing.

4)         Sony’s Stan Glasgow stated DRM would “become less important”?  That’s nice to hear, but currently there is no move by Sony to prove this true, nor is there any major move on the industry’s part to drop DRM implementation.  At present, Yahoo Music has only offered a few non-DRM possibilities, and EMI is only considering some kind of limited ‘pilot program.’

5)         AllofMP3.com is an excellent of example of how well non-DRM music can sell—as well as when it is priced inexpensively.  While perhaps (as the author states) 10 to 25 cents per track would seem fair, when the RIAA states that it’s ‘trade secret’ is that its wholesale price per track is 70 cents…  how willing might the industry truly be to lower prices to 25 cents per track?

Unless a major player in the industry really decides to ‘bite the bullet’ and otherwise take the lead by providing the widest possible selection of non-DRM MP3 downloads at much lower prices per track, how long will we have to wait for this future to occur?