DRM’d music is dead. DRM’d video will be next.

As CD sales plummet, the record labels have realized that they have to get with the 21st century. They have to have a place on your iPod, if they expect you to listen to them, and they have to get rid of DRM if they want to fight Apple’s dominance in the digital music world.

Without dumpting DRM, the labels are forced into the bizarre situation of providing instructions on how to circumvent music DRM so you can get WMA files onto your iPod.

If You Want Us To Watch, Don’t DRM Your Video

The growth of digital video and mobile video devices has been hampered by DRM for too long. If you want to make fair use of a DVD and put it on your iPod, iPhone, Apple TV, Zune or other portable media player, you’ve got to jump through too many hoops. If you want to watch network television shows on these devices, you’ve got to jump through even more hoops.

This doesn’t mean that we’re not watching video on our portable media players – it means that we’re watching free video podcasts and other free Internet videos. It means that our attention is moving from network television shows and mainstream movies to other things.

DRM’d video is a dead end. In 2008, expect to see baby steps from the networks and studios toward supporting portable media players and open formats as they realize that viewer’s attention is moving on.

DRM’d video isn’t roadkill yet, but it’s a dead end. Ad-supported video podcasts and downloadable Internet video are going to get more and more of people’s attention. Advertising dollars are already moving to new media. The content producers that succeed are going to be the ones that can adapt.

Image: ableman