EMI Ready to Reform on Digital Rights Management - for a Big Price

Via Slashdot.org, I learned of this piece in Ars Technica - after indicating that it would be daring and forego digital rights management in selling digital music, EMI dropped the other shoe. Yes, it would be willing to license music without DRM, which prevents unauthorized copying and, among other things, makes iTunes music only playable on an iPod. But that would cost - a lot. In other words, the idea of reforming business practice because it was alienating the sea of customers went out the window. It sounds like a combination of EMI wanting every last penny it could pry out of people's hands and trying to primp itself for Warner's potential acquisition interest.

I can understand the labels being concerned about the possibility of music piracy by so many individuals that the material would essentially become free. What I fail to understand is why the companies stop with the sturm und drang and just test the concept. Pick a dozen or a hundred representative tracks, remove the DRM, and see what happens? Watch the results and see if sales go up (meaning DRM is a hinderance) or down (the naysayers are right and theft would be the result). And, as Steve Jobs has pointed out, the vast majority of digital music is sold via unprotected CD, with people able to rip MP3s to their heart's content. Ah, but then someone is making a decision, and when you do that, you could be held accountable.