Good news regarding the ridiculous straight-jackets that major labels have place on downloading for sites such as itunes. Today, EMI, one of the RIAA's "big four" announced that they will offer their songs on itunes without cumbersome DRM. Both EMI and Apple have been flirting with the idea of dropping DRM for some time, with Steve Jobs calling for abolishing it just two months ago. Hopefully this step by EMI will begin to signal a more reasonable policy with regards to downloading music. Now, if only the RIAA will stop suing 10 year old girls and grandmas for extortion money, and stop treating average people in the same way that they treat street vendors in the U.S. and China who sell crappy pirated CD-R's for commercial profit. I should note, however, that DRM-free songs will cost you 30 cents more, and that DRM-restricted EMI songs will still be sold at the old 99 cent price. Unfortunately, this raise in price might act as a disincentive for consumers to switch over to non-DRM, and might hurt EMI to an extent. I should also note that the rumors of EMI releasing the Beatles' catalogue to itunes were premature.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/...
EMI and Apple say DRM is so yesterday
By Kelly Fiveash → More by this author
Published Monday 2nd April 2007 15:38 GMT
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Well, the Beatles hasn't joined the DRM-free Apple/EMI jamboree – at least not yet.
Instead, today's announcement signalled the beginning of the end for DRM with EMI climbing into bed with Apple to offer high quality MP3s that can be used on any digital-enabled player.
It's a strategy that will also help relationships with various parties in Europe who have bemoaned DRM - particularly Apple's stance - as violating consumer law.
EMI's CEO Eric Nicoli said the music label - which is the first of the big four record labels to enter the DRM-free market - will offer its entire catalogue as premium digital downloads worldwide from May via Apple's iTunes, at 99 pence or $1.29 per track.
Steve Jobs said: "We think our customers are going to love this." The new premium AAC encoded downloads will effectively double the sound quality from 128Kbps to 256Kbps.