Warner Music Group Is Very Much In Favor Of DRM–We Think

Yesterday we posted an item about AnywhereCD, a new digital-music service that was selling Warner Music Group titles via 192Kbps-MP3. Shortly after the item went up, an astute commenter noted that the article had been altered since our posting, and sure enough, the Billboard.biz article we linked to, which was called “Warner Music Group Ditches DRM?” yesterday, now has the much sterner headline “WMG Issues Termination Notice To DRM-Free Service”:

Warner Music Group has sent a notice of termination to the recently launched DRM-free music service AnywhereCD.

The service, which was formed by Michael Robertson, founder of the original MP3.com, is stocked with music from a variety of labels including ones under the Warner Music Group umbrella, as well as several indie labels like SubPop and Roadrunner Records.

“AnywhereCD is selling Warner Music Group content in a manner that flagrantly violates the terms of our agreement,” says a WMG representative. “Accordingly, we have sent them a notice of termination and they are required to immediately remove all of our content from their site.”

As of this writing, though, the WMG albums are still on the site; a Reuters story published this morning is attempting to clarify WMG’s position, saying that WMG was OK with AnywhereCD “[offering] a service to let CD buyers rip their albums into MP3 files.” (Like … iTunes?) We’ll keep an eye on this story throughout the day, but we’re starting to wonder if our joke about WMG chair Edgar Bronfman Jr. not noticing that this AnywhereCD deal was going down may have actually been rooted in truth.

Warner Music wants unprotected albums off Web site [Reuters via Hypebot] WMG Issues Termination Notice To DRM-Free Service [Billboard] Earlier: Warner Music Group Sneaks Into DRM-Free Music World