Think that you, classical music lover, can ‘Handel’ DRM-free downloads? Or will you ‘Beethoven’ until you ‘Tchaikovsky’ all over the place?
Either way, Universal Music wants to know. That’s why it’s sticking a trepidatious toe into the recently made bathwater of DRM-free MP3s by offering its refined, quite serious catalog of jazz and classical music free of digital rights management for a trial period at classicsandjazz.co.uk. Of course, you still have to pay money for the songs, but at least now you can do what you want with them. Progress. Labels under the UMC&J umbrella include Rounder, Verve, Impulse, Decca, Deutsche Grammophone, Philips, and Emacy. Eat dinner without the creeping fear that your background music is confined by rigid copyright protection. Entertain guest with your vast catalog of ‘jazz appropriate to talk over.’ Transfer your new songs to a portable device, travel back in time, and cause any number of classical music riots.
Maybe, as Universal is hoping, you’ll even be ‘Bach’ for more. Gosh, classical music is fun.