I wouldn't say just yet that DRM is in it's final days. People have downloaded over 5 billion tunes from iTunes, and it's the US's biggest music retailer with something like 80%+ market share.
Yes, Apple does offer DRM-free tracks, but those have only been available there for about a year. And does anyone know if they're yet doing this with any labels other than EMI?
DRM use does seem to be declining, but it's going to be a while yet before it disappears completely.
The funny thing is that stories like Yahoo's and Microsoft's are the reason DRM is declining.
If the record companies really cared about DRM, they would provide a service to distribute keys once an online music store closes... instead of creating a mass of disenfranchised customers who will think twice before buying DRM-laden music again.
But, no, they'd rather monetize the customer's convenience than protect their music.
The reason Yahoo Music store is closing is b/c the DRM was very poor -- partly due to Microsoft's technology and partly due to Yahoo's flaky and untested music player software.
Apple is keeping DRM going strong with movies. Let us hope that rather than dying, DRM innovation continues.
bleep.com was one of the first, and is still quite good. They stock the entire Warp catalog, as well as lots of other smaller ones (catering to indie rock, dub, electronic, etc.) such as Domino, etc.
Since I actually worked on something closely tied to the Yahoo Music property (NOT on the DRM side, don't worry!) when I was with Yahoo, I'm sad to see it closing. I know several folks who may be out of a job because of this news. Sad.
Yes, Apple does offer DRM-free tracks, but those have only been available there for about a year. And does anyone know if they're yet doing this with any labels other than EMI?
DRM use does seem to be declining, but it's going to be a while yet before it disappears completely.