Digital Music Annual Review 2008

It's been quite an eventful year in the digital music world. We've seen Yahoo pull the plug on its Yahoo Unlimited music service and then transfer its bewildered customers to the Rhapsody service. Initially, Microsoft also made waves by announcing that it was to shutdown its DRM licensing servers for existing customers of the now defunct MSN Music; they later reversed their decision by pledging that they would offer support for at least another 3 years (2011).

Luckily their was a lot more good news in 2008 than bad, like the gradual realization by digital download companies that consumers wanted freedom from DRM copy protection. Napster for example made their entire music library available in the MP3 format (article). There was also the continuing trend of music bands giving away free music - even entire albums, like The Slip album by Nine Inch Nails (blog).

There was also some unusual stories in 2008, such as cops in the United Kingdom who mistakenly identified an MP3 player for a gun, and hackers who took a dislike to the RIAA Web site and decided to hose it clean. Recently, there was also news that pirates plundered the Amazon store with a Firefox plugin! I wonder if 2009 will be as eventful? Let’s hope so!

For more digital music highlights, be sure to read our Digital Music Annual Review 2008

Here's to a happy 2009!