Technology, Culture, Commentary on the Internet Revolution

Survey: Consumers Hate DRM. Duh.

by Mike Abundo on August 6th, 2007

“Most people, I think, don’t even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?” — Thomas Hesse, Sony BMG’s president of global digital business.

A new survey reveals what we already know, but what music execs can’t get through their skulls: consumers know what DRM is, and they hate it. And no, we’re not just talking about the geeks.

Entertainment Media Research, working with media law firm Olswang, conducted lengthy online surveys with 1,700 UK music consumers, selected from a pre-existing panel of more than 300,000 music consumers in the UK.

68 percent of those with opinions on the matter say that the only music worth purchasing is that which is DRM-free. Yet less than half (39 percent) are willing to pay a little extra for it, while 18 percent say that they’d rather save a little dough and keep the DRM if they had to chose between the two. In the middle is a mass of people with no opinion on the matter, because they’re not sure what DRM is or don’t know their preference. That will likely soon change.

Familiarity with DRM has grown significantly in the last year. In 2006, more than half of respondents had never heard of DRM, but that number has dropped 16 percentage points in 2007, to 37 percent. The number of people who claimed to have a good or exact knowledge of DRM nearly tripled in that same timeframe.

Of those who have some idea of what DRM is, their views are largely—but not entirely—negative. 61 percent said that DRM “invades the rights of the music consumer to hear their music on different platforms.” 49 percent called it a “nuisance,” and 39 percent expressed concerns that DRM could have privacy implications. Despite this, 63 percent agreed that DRM “is a good idea because it protects copyrighted music from illegal file-sharers.” In other words, the idea of stopping illegal file-sharing via DRM doesn’t bother these consumers much, but the effect the effort is having on their own purchases is not appreciated.

Even a children’s book can tell kids DRM is evil. It’s amazing how stupid recording companies think music lovers are. This survey should be a wake-up call to them.

Share This

POSTED IN: Music