Comments on: EMI and iTunes To Sell DRM-Free Music

In a joint press statement, major music label EMI and Apple Inc. announced today that EMI tracks on the iTunes Music Store will be available without DRM. In addition, the songs will be in a higher-quality format than standard iTunes tracks. This unprecedented and welcome move means that any Palm media player that supports AAC files (including Pocket Tunes, AeroPlayer and Kinoma Player) will now be able play any of EMI's iTunes music.

"We believe that offering consumers the opportunity to buy higher quality tracks and listen to them on the device or platform of their choice will boost sales of digital music," said EMI CEO Eric Nicoli.

The price on these tracks has been raised to US $1.29. No word yet on whether competing music services such as Yahoo! Music will also begin selling DRM-free content.

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In May

freakout @ 4/2/2007 10:01:32 PM #

Ooops.

"This unprecedented and welcome move means that any Palm media player that supports AAC files (including Pocket Tunes, AeroPlayer and Kinoma Player) will now be able play any of EMI's iTunes music."

Make that:

This unprecedented and welcome move means that any Palm media player that supports AAC files (including Pocket Tunes, AeroPlayer and Kinoma Player) will be able play any of EMI's iTunes music from May onwards.

Tim
I apologise for any and all emoticons that appear in my posts. You may shoot them on sight.
Treo 270 ---> Treo 650 ---> Crimson Treo 680

So will Apple be the one to save us?

twrock @ 4/2/2007 11:32:30 PM #

Surprise, surprise, surprise! Jobs is putting his money where his mouth is and sticking it to Gates and company at the same time. Just when MS figures out a great way of locking the whole world into their DRM (meaning of course locking into MS only products in the end), Jobs thumbs his nose at them and offers DRM free music. Sweet.

Hmmm, maybe I shouldn't have been so quick to dismiss those who were saying DRM is dying. Here's hoping.

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RE: So will Apple be the one to save us?

freakout @ 4/3/2007 1:19:01 AM #

Yeah, it's really very pleasing to see a major label take the initiative like this. I gotta say I didn't think it was ever going to happen either. But like the EMI guy says, they're never going to grow the digital music market unless they remove the artificial shackles that are placed on it. Good to see they wised up sooner rather than never.

RE: So will Apple be the one to save us?

twrock @ 4/6/2007 2:34:50 AM #

From the article "Apple's Move May Make AAC Music Industry Standard" (http://apple.slashdot.org/apple/07/04/05/1937208.shtml):

With time, practically all music stores will be selling iPod-compatible songs. This will be considered a Richter 10 event at Microsoft.

One can only hope.

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Absolutely FANTASTIC news.

VampireLestat @ 4/3/2007 1:33:25 AM #

I loudly applaud Apple and EMI for the move.
It is common sense.
It is pro consumer.

Jobs keeps plowing ahead, earning more and more points in the "Love Apple, we are cool, we are fun, we understand you" campaign.

The iPhone might be an option...

RE: Absolutely FANTASTIC news.

VampireLestat @ 4/3/2007 2:01:30 AM #

OK I can't help myself.

Bravo Apple! Praise Steve Jobs!
Many people will continue to pirate but what is important here is that people who want to be fair by reasonably support the music companies and artists, can now pay for a legitimate, high quality, reliable, fast, complete catalog, portal download service. with the old system, people paid to get less than if they just downloaded off of torrents.

Now parents will have a better way to pay a few bucks and show the kids there is a fairer, more moral way to download songs (and hopefully soon movies!) off the Internet. Im still in favor of unrestricted online file sharing, but I applaud and welcome commercial portal download services; which I feel will be more fun to use e.g., find hard to find songs, no queue waiting, no file corruption, best quality from source (especially for movies),

To be honest, I would LOVE to be able to pay with my MasterCard a couple of $ to download a very high quality XviD movie instead of having to use torrents which force me to upload, wait, start over, etc. I want to sit down, pay 2$, download the xvid without harrassement, put it on my SD card, then play it on my HDTV (with SD slot in my DVD player) and be done with it. Im not paying 14.95$ however so they can forget about that. Downloads are very price sensitive. And if I download a movie, I want to be able to convert it, edit it, share it with close circle friends, etc. With DRM, music and videos are 100% WORTHLESS to me and that means 0% sale rate. I have plenty of money to spend, I am simply asking for a fun and valuable service in exchange.

May EMI and Apple be the first step towards a better new media age on the Internet.
Anyways, I could go on all day.

But in essence, God bless Steve Jobs.

RE: Absolutely FANTASTIC news.

freakout @ 4/3/2007 3:47:08 AM #

God doesn't need to bless Steve Jobs; as far as his fans are concerned (and probably Jobs himself), he is God. Good on him nonetheless for his efforts in this matter.

It's EMI who deserves the biggest kudos. I hope this a profitable venture for them, so other media companies will follow their example.

Zune ditches DRM

jcbsinger @ 4/4/2007 6:39:30 AM #

I can guess Microsoft will follow Apple's move on selling DRM-Free songs very soon.

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RE: Zune ditches DRM

SeldomVisitor @ 4/4/2007 6:46:17 AM #

That would be...interesting...given all that uSoft has thrown INTO the DRM ring (hat, short, pants, kitchen sink, etc...).

Hmm

Mike Chicago @ 4/5/2007 6:03:32 PM #

Realize, of course, that Apple only made this happen after it squashed most competition with years of iPod-only protected AAC sales.

How progressive.

RE: Hmm

ChiA @ 4/6/2007 1:14:18 PM #

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Just which of the following competitors has Apple's iTunes squashed:

Napster, AllofMp3, BuyMusic, Sony Connect, Rhapsody, Audio Lunchbox, Puretracks, Zune Marketplace, Emusic or BuyMusic?

Furthermore many of these stores sell DRM protected music incompatible with the iPod but compatible with almost every other player.

Has Apple's iPod crushed Archos, Creative, Microsoft, Sony, the mobile phone companies or the countless other companies which make media players? Even Rio, the first mp3 player lives on.

The iPod wasn't the first "mp3" player and iTunes wasn't even the first online music store.

It seems there's still plenty of competition and therefore you should think how progressive you can be from your current lack of awareness and knowledge before making such statements.

RE: Hmm

freakout @ 4/6/2007 7:05:04 PM #

As many other sites have noted, unlike mp3, AAC doesn't require distribution royalties. It's not Apple's technology - it's a standard developed by a lot of different companies. AAC files have never been "iPod-only", and at lower bitrates it's technically a superior format to mp3.