Brian Zisk on what's next for DRM in the U.S. and overseas

Few people know more about Internet music or believe in it more passionately than Brian Zisk, who produces the SanFran MusicTech Summit. 

A co-founder and board member of the Future of Music Coalition, an advocacy group for musicians, Zisk is a big believer that digital music should be unencumbered by DRM and other restrictive technologies.

The market is ultimately going to determine how music gets sold online, says Zisk, not music-industry lawyers.

Even lobbyists have a tough time defending some of the practices of the big music companies, which is why  things are slowly moving in a more open direction. 

"The future of music and the future of the big record labels are not necessarily aligned," says Zisk, who founded Green Witch Internet Radio  a decade ago and later sold it to  CMGI.

While digitally-protected music may seem like it's on the ropes, not all the big record labels are likely to give up on it completely anytime soon, he says.

Yet with more bands releasing music directly to their fans online, and most of the big music labels selling DRM-free music through iTunes and Amazon.com, the trend is headed in the right direction. 

Zisk was so engaging and so knowledgeable about digital music that we filmed not one, not two, or even three interviews, but four of them. Look for more in the coming weeks.