• Ars Technica, Friday, August 10, 2007 10:45 AM

This is a test, this is only a test: Universal Music Group has decided to experiment with selling digital rights management-free music, planning a six-month nationwide test in which most of its popular content will be sold using the universal MP3 format. Music sellers like Amazon, RealNetworks, BestBuy, Wal-Mart and others will all get a chance to sell UMG's DRM-free music; conspicuously, Apple's iTunes was left out of the test, per its contractual issues with the iPod maker.

The six-month trial begins on August 21 and ends on January 31; the music giant can simply pull the plug if it doesn't like the way the test is going. What UMG really wants to see is if the initiative adversely affects the industry's astronomically high piracy rates. If it doesn't positively affect sales either, the test comes with an out.

But what's with Apple being left out? In a statement, UMG CEO Doug Morris talks about expanding the online availability of its artists' music, "offering consumers the most choice in how and where they purchase and enjoy our music." How do you validate that statement by conspicuously leaving out the industry's largest seller of online music? Contractual disputes aside, Apple's iTunes is tops on the online music pile, responsible for an astonishing 10% of music sales, according to NPD Group, making it the third-largest seller of music nationwide.

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