One thing that has been bothering me recently with regards to the Digital Rights Management discussions is, why don't all the record companies band together to create a standard for digital rights management which everyone else has to adhere to?

It seems crazy that they are the ones complaining about DRM issues but then relying on 3rd parties to provide content protection.

It is my opinion that things are all back to front, and mainly due to the lack of knowledge regarding DRM issues inhouse. If DRM was a real priority for Record Companies they could each employ a person in thier organisation who has a firm grasp on the technology and implementation of DRM to form a working group with other industry leaders they would ultimatly have greater control of thier products.

The Coral Consortium The Coral Consortium has sent a letter to Steve Jobs of apple fame inviting him to join their push for a unified Digital Rights Management technology.

The premise of this consortium is to essentially do away with issues relating to digital media devices' interoperability and format compatibility restrictions that have plagued digital music distribution since it was first embarked upon.

Leading music industry people now seem to be making predictions on the future, or lack of, of Digital Rights Management. The concept they are parading is simple, pay a monthly fee to subscribe to unlimited (potentially) downloads of digital music.

This could be an amazing advance for content producers and distributors, but is viable right now?

Well yes and no, it is a great idea and would allow any artist to have their tracks purchased and played by anyone at anytime through some sort of subscription.

On the other side if the coin, how do emerging artists compete with the likes of Metallica etc.. the big guys.

DRM is a hot issue at the moment. We have some of the biggest companies in the world throwing their weight around, telling us what we can do with the music we have purchased, not only that, they are telling us what devices we allowed to play it on.

This is ridiculous state of affairs to be in. It would be akin to petrol stations telling us if you use this fuel you must use this car. Who would stand for that?

One of the biggest issues we have is that the 2 main competitors Microsoft & Apple, are doing everything they can to stop media interoperability between their competing portable media players.