A turning point on DRM?

Fans and artists who are less than jazzed by major entertainment companies using DRM technology to lock up digital media have reason to be a little optimistic this month.

At South by Southwest last week, SNOCAP announced it had reached deals with major indies Sub Pop, Dangerbird and New Line to distribute their music via MySpace without DRM. As TechCrunch astutely points out, these labels operate under the umbrella of Warner, one of the nation’s biggest music groups. Last Fall, SNOCAP inked a deal with MySpace to allow artists to sell their music via their MySpace pages without DRM technology.

With the sheer number of people that will buy music through MySpace, this could be a sign that the major labels are losing the DRM war. View the SNOCAP press release. Incidentally, artists can actually get more money for the CD sales by registering for SNOCAP as part of CD Baby Digital Distribution. (Artists get about 3 cents more a track and don't have to pay annual fees, according to Derek Sivers at CD Baby).