Vodafone signs up 450,000 music fans with DRM free offerings

UK-based carrier Vodafone highlighted the draw of DRM-free content this week, revealing that around 450,000 users signed up to its music services in 2009.

During December 2009 alone, over 100,000 customers signed up to one of Vodafone’s music service offerings across the eight largest Vodafone markets in Europe (Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and UK).

The company operates a number of music subscription services, including Vodafone Music, in partnership with RealNetworks, and Omnifone-powered Music Station, offering monthly ten track MP3 bundles as well as all you can eat unlimited access services. The offerings variously pitch ten tracks per month for around €5 on a standalone basis, or full access to the entire catalogue of over two million tracks for around €3 per month when bundled with data.

Vodafone Group announced deals with Sony Music, EMI, and Universal in March 2009, and with Warner Music in September to offer their full music catalogues in DRM-free MP3 format.

Despite concerns over content piracy, the DRM free approach seems to be winning fans in the record industry as well as among consumers. Vodafone said that MP3 files bought in bundles can be played on a wide range of computers, digital media players and mobile handsets as well as be imported into iTunes.