EMI accounces DRM-free MP3s
The web has been positively buzzing with speculation since the announcement of an imminent EMI/Apple “exciting new digital offering”. Would it be the Beatles back-catalogue made available on the iTunes Music Store or something else? Turns out it’s the latter - EMI will be making it’s entire catalogue available via iTMS without DRM restrictions. It’s the first of the mega-corporates to take the leap and it’s difficult to imagine that Steve Jobs wasn’t aware of this when he made his own call for the abolition of DRM.
Everything isn’t quite glory and light: it appears that the deal is $0.99 for tracks locked with DRM and AAC encrypted at 128kbps or $1.29 without DRM at 256kbps. Given Apple’s emphasis upon simplicity, this is a rather surprising move.
April 2nd, 2007 at 3:20 pm
[…] catch? You bet there is a catch—Apple isn’t outright dropping DRM tracks from its EMI collection. Instead, you will have […]