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Monday, April 2, 2007
Every time EMI and Apple are mentioned in the same line, everyone thinks its going to be a pending Beatles catalog announcement. Well, that’s what happened this weekend when word was sent out from EMI that it had a big announcement and Steve Jobs was a special guest. Once the let down of the absence of the Beatles catalog was realized today, EMI fronted to the world a new way to purchase its existing catalog on iTunes: DRM free. Not only will there be no digital protection on the music files you will be able to download for $1.29 each at the iTunes store, but the quality will be twice that of the current DRM versions with a bit rate of 256 kpbs.
“We are going to give iTunes customers a choice—the current versions of our songs for the same 99 cent price, or new DRM-free versions of the same songs with even higher audio quality and the security of interoperability for just 30 cents more,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We think our customers are going to love this, and we expect to offer more than half of the songs on iTunes in DRM-free versions by the end of this year.”
If desire to upgrade your current EMI iTunes-downloaded music to the new higher grade ball-and-chain free versions, you can for a mere 30 cent upgrade per song.
Apple intends to have more than half of its offerings in DRM-free AAC format by years end. With this announcement, any music player such as iPods, Zens, and music players on computers such as Windows and Mac OS will be able to play the new version from iTunes. Further, digital network players, such as the Sonos music player, will be able to play your purchased music from iTunes without any worry.
We here at SvenOnTech applaud EMI and Apple and urge the rest of the record industry to follow suit…now!
