Apple to Offer DRM-Free Music Via iTunes
No Beatles CD catalog for Apple today, but the news is just as sweet. At today’s Apple press conference in London, Steve Jobs announced that EMI’s entire digital music catalog will be available on iTunes in May. Oh, did I mention it will be DRM-free?
The sans-DRM music is higher quality (256 kbps AAC) and can be played music players other than ipod. There are no details as to if Apple will make connections to iTunes available to other MP3 players such as Zune or the Creative Zen. My bet is that they won’t, but Steve Jobs always surprises me.
Of course, the DRM free songs are priced at a 30% premium over the rusty-shackled, 99-cent versions, but how many times have we heard DRM opponents say “I would pay a premium for DRM-free music if it was available?” I say back it up with your dollars.
This should be interesting to watch. Will we see other music giants step forward to offer more DRM-free music, or will we just see higher quality files on P2P sites? Probably both.
I definitely agree that this is an interesting development - now that Apple has realized that with its massive cornering of the market it can afford to grant music listeners more liberties (albeit at a price) I hope they move towards more universal application of the iPod - being able to sync it with only one computer is quite painful!
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