Barry, DRM has been a deal breaker for me from day one. I like making songlists and burning them for folks, sharing music any way I can. The worst DRM was the one on the Sony discs. As for Apple, the IPod needs to open up to all music formats, and stop being tied to the ITunes application. I use Windows Media for all of my music organization because it is a common program to many music players and other software. I beleive that hardware, software and intellectual property should compete in an open marketplace. Let me decide what software I want to use with my mp3 player. DRM is a failure and is gratefully on the way out. The fact that today, downloads only compose 3% of music sales is irrelevant to the future of music. CD' are going the way of the VHS tape. DRM free is definitely a plus and a selling point for downloads.