The NBC programming that went missing from iTunes last December has finally turned up in the Zune marketplace. Fans of The Office, Heroes, and 30 Rock can once again pay to download episodes of their favorite programs — provided they own a Zune and a Windows PC.

Given the Zune’s miniscule market share it’s curious to see any network choosing Microsoft’s media platform over iTunes for paid downloads. When NBC pulled its programming from iTunes, network officials sniffed at the relatively small sales the Apple service had generated. By comparison, sales in the Zune marketplace are bound to redefine the term “nano”.

Clearly this move isn’t about selling digital content online. NBC seems to be more interested in punishing Apple for exercising control over iTunes pricing than it is in actually expanding the market for legal downloads.

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Longtime readers of this site (that would be Will and John) know that there are consumer products to which we’ve never been very kind. These products include Microsoft’s Zune, anything from DuroSport Electronics and of course SpiralFrog, the major label-sponsored website that allows you to download DRM’d music for FREE! All you have to do is ignore some ads.

After first making fun of the concept, then making fun of the amazingly long time to market, and finally, making fun of the thing itself, I figured that I was done with ever writing about it ever again. Hell, I thought I was done with ever thinking about it again.

Until last night.

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It would be all too easy to declare the DRM wars over. With the recent addition of the Sony BMG catalog to the Amazon MP3 store, all of the major labels have finally given in to consumer demands by allowing their music to be sold in an unrestricted digital format.

Unfortunately, DRM is anything but dead. There remains a pervasive belief among media executives that DRM can somehow protect content and intellectual property rights in the digital marketplace. This despite all evidence to the contrary. A quick glance at the leading online sources for legal downloads will confirm that DRM is still very much a part of the digital media landscape.

Both Amazon and Apple continue to use DRM to restrict access to video content. That’s no surprise considering film studios and television networks have long required DRM on all digital media products — a requirement that has done nothing to curb piracy.

Amazon also uses DRM to restrict Kindle eBook downloads. Given Amazon’s relationship with the major publishing houses, you might expect the company to use its influence to convince publishers that DRM actually limits consumer choice, thereby inhibiting the marketplace for digital content. After all, Amazon advertises DRM-free as a feature in its MP3 store — why not encourage publishers to follow suit?

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FREE Music!! 25,000,000 Songs! Legal!

Those are the claims of on the current home page of Qtrax, the latest entrant in the downloadable music fray.

All I have to do, of course, is sit through advertising while downloading. Oh, and I also have to download their player in order to play the music I’ve downloaded. OK, so haven’t we already been down this route before with, you know, Spiral Frog?

Well, there is one big difference from Spiral Frog: the fact that right now the major labels are all saying “Qtrax? Who-trax?”

Oops.

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In this era of mega-super-star recording artists and multi-platinum albums, it’s hard to believe that there was ever a time when the recording industry was in dire straights. Many have already forgotten the challenges the major labels were up against in the mid-90’s.

Back then, low cost CD burners were just becoming widely available. While the drives were developed for data storage, it didn’t take long for unscrupulous consumers pirates to figure out that they could use CD burners to copy music CDs.

Piracy quickly became rampant as consumers “backed up” their CD collections and traded disks with friends. The problem was so serious that the major labels began to fear that CD sales would eventually plummet.

Fortunately, the RIAA was on the case. On January 31st, 1997, the organization unveiled a “breakthrough copyright protection system to prevent CD copying through computers“.

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Just when it looks like the major labels have finally decided to give consumers what they really want by selling DRM-free music, Sony BMG comes along with a totally innovative harebrained scheme that could have only be hatched by the minds that brought you spyware infected audio CDs.

Sony BMG is the last of the major labels still clinging to DRM as a means of protecting digital content. However, it’s now being widely reported that Sony will begin selling DRM-free album downloads later this month. More precisely, the label will begin selling trading cards that include a PIN that can be used to download music. Oh, and the cards will only be available through traditional retail outlets.

That’s right, to download one of Sony BMG’s new DRM free albums, you’ll need to log off your computer, leave your house, find a retailer that’s actually selling the cards, find a parking spot, buy the damn thing, then drive home to download the album (note the use of the world ‘album’, Sony apparently won’t be selling individual tracks).

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The World Series may have wrapped up last week, but there’s still plenty of action in the world of baseball. Owners are considering the use of instant replay, A-Rod is looking for a $350 million pay day, and MLB is finding new ways to torture fans with the careless use of DRM.

The off-season can seem excruciatingly long for baseball fans. With months to go before pitchers and catchers report for spring training, hardcore fans often turn to MLB.com for a quick fix of baseball action. Some fans even shell out a few bucks to download videos of their favorite games. Recently though, fans who have built substantial libraries of game videos are finding out that their video collections have become unplayable.

Allan Wood’s experience is a classic example of the risks involved in buying DRM protected media products. Over the years, Wood has purchased nearly $300 in game videos from MLB.com. He’s recently discovered that those videos are now worthless. Major League Baseball has apparently changed DRM providers — in the process, they’ve deactivated the DRM license servers that validate previously purchased videos for playback.

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Back in June, I read a review of the new Ash album “Twilight of the Innocents” on the Guardian Unlimited website where it was mentioned that the band, a personal favorite, was about to end its recording career. Their traditional recording career that is. From this point forward the band members would be “dedicating ourselves wholly to the art of the single for the digital age.” For this I applaud them as, presumably, one won’t have to buy expensive imports and will just be able to download new Ash songs from the website or an online retailer like iTunes.

For those not familiar with Ash, you may remember the wonderful single “A Life Less Ordinary,” from a terrible movie of the same name. Always a bit of an indie underdog, Ash’s last album, a pop-rock meisterwerk called “Meltdown,” went virtually unnoticed in this country. I thought then that something might give, like a breakup or a total sell out. Instead, they’ve taken matters into their own hands. With the latest album not even released in this country, the internet could be the band’s savior, as long as there are no international or crazy DRM restrictions involved. I wish them luck in their future. But what I really like is this newfound artistic freedom that bands like Ash are planning, and how it is actually starting to take shape with other bands.
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The headlines scream: “Universal Music Takes on iTunes,” and all I can think is “what, again?” Don’t they do that, like, every other week?

This time, I am told, it will be different. This time, Universal Music Chief Doug Morris is talking about launching a subscription model — reportedly called “Total Music” — that will essentially be FREE to the consumers. Which doesn’t at all sound like a combination of Napster 2.0 and Spiral Frog. Nope.

I will admit, there is what seems to be a twist:

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It’s what we’ve been waiting for: a major band with an anticipated album to step up and completely bypass the entire major label mechanism and self-release their next record.

And that’s not even the best part: the best part is if you want it as a purely digital release, you can pay whatever you want for it.

In a sense, Radiohead is playing for tips.

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