Public libraries digitising music

During a recent meeting on digitisation in the EU, the JISC Digitisation Programme came across this interesting digitisation model from the Rotterdam Central Record Library

1. The library in Rotterdam owns 300,000 CDs (including mainstream stuff)
2. They are digitising every CD
3. CDs are then lent digitally, ie via Internet, to library users (for free)
4. Users can use the tracks for a limited period before DRM kicks in and blocks use
5. Publishers were initially suspicious but have been won over because users are now getting access to stuff that they never knew of before – and then they buy it if they like it