Digital Rights Management (DRM) has been a controversial technology in the music industry for quite some time. Its purpose was to use it's technologies to prevent the illegal copying of music and control it's distribution. Many artists, labels, and music companies thought that DRM would be the answer they were looking for to piracy, but it's execution of was all wrong. DRM was on the way out due to its ineffective results and the introduction of MP3 encoded music by major retailers ,such as Amazon and Walmart. However, innovators might have found a way to to fine tune DRM and revive it.
The site Licensinglive.com addresses this argument by stating, "A common argument against DRM is that it punishes paying customers without successfully preventing piracy. Legitimate users are restricted from freely using the content or software that they rightfully own, while illegitimate users can still download the very same content, and use it without restrictions – and without paying the publisher." Steve Jobs, former CEO of Apple, even addressed the issue with releasing his essay, "Thoughts on Music", in 2007 saying, "DRMs haven’t worked, and may never work, to halt music piracy".
Micheal Arrington, from the company techcrunch informs us of a two new techniques that have evolved in DRM- water marking and cloud computing. He explains that although DRM encoded MP3's have stopped, watermarking never did. Watermarking encrypts your personal information to these music files. Cloud computing deals with controlling where the music is played by matching the personal information with the user identity and either accessing the music or locking it from playing. Both watermarking and cloud computing the initiative needed to inspire a DRM revival, maybe stopping piracy and putting an end to the ever declining music industry.