Comment Re:Thanks Apple! (Score 1) 212
Apple said in February 2007 that they would offer DRM free music if allowed. EMI allowed them in May 2007.
Yahoo Music chief Dave Goldberg said in February 2006 (at the Music 2.0 conference) that the music companies should sell DRM-free music: "Rights management restrictions have created a barrier for consumers, he said, making it a hurdle to transfer music to portable devices, and creating incompatibility between music services and MP3 players."
Bill Gates also expressed his problems with the state of music DRM in December 2006 in an informal Q&A discussing the Mix Conference: "People should just buy a cd and rip it. You are legal then."
Actions speak louder than words I guess. Amazon didn't offer it until January 2008. So technically Apple was the first to offer DRM-free music.
"Technically," eMusic and Amie Street offered DRM-free music way before Apple, but I understand why we aren't counting them in this thread.
However, Yahoo Music acted ("experimented," actually) by offering Jessica Simpson's "A Public Affair" as a DRM-free MP3 file in July 2006, offred an entire Jesse McCartney album in September 2006, and a Norah Jones single in December 2006.
All this before Steve Jobs made his "bold" statement in Febraury 2007.
That dispels your theory that Amazon was the leader.
Interestigly, Amazon was rumored to be considering an MP3-only music download store in January 2007 (at the latest), before Steve Jobs made his statement.