Boom!
Here's some pretty sweet news:
Mr. Steve Jobs has just announced that Apple will join up with EMI to offer the entire EMI catalog on iTunes music store....
DRM free!
The announcement was made today and the new 'free tunes' will be available for download in May. The new music prices will increase 30% to $1.29 per song, but the quality offered will be upped to 256 kbs in AAC format. Interestingly, iTunes will continue to offer the DRM music as well at $.99 per track, giving music listeners a choice. (not sure about the thinking on this, but whatever...)
So the price goes up, but the quality's better and there's no DRM to contend with. The hike in coinage that it will take to buy the DRM-free music from iTunes has another benefit too, as it will give a more even advantage to smaller distributors.
Another cool little tidbit is that (as near as I can tell) full albums will remain the same price (!) and you can 'upgrade' any previously purchased iTunes DRM music in your library by simply paying the $.30 difference. That's cool. Also from what I understand DRM videos can be stripped of their DRM for free.
Apparently, back in February, Steve Jobs actually sent out an open letter to record companies encouraging them to dump DRM restrictions. Mr. Jobs stated in the letter that the only reason iTunes implemented DRM in the first place was because the major music labels wouldn't distribute music through iTunes Music Store without the DRM restrictions in place.
I know that this won't mean anything at all to many people who get their music from eMusic or elsewhere, but the fact is that this is a huge (although inevitable) step forward for the world of music. As long as the concept doesn't bomb (and why would it?), then everyone else will very quickly jump on-board and the DRM monster will be effectively slain.
Great work, Apple!
P.S.- In case you're wondering (and why wouldn't you be?) The Beatles' music, which EMI owns the rights to, will still not be released along with the rest of their catalog as of yet.
***********Dr. Confusion jumping in here********
I think this is great news. But, I worry. I'm worried that, in pricing the DRM free tracks higher, the sales will be lower. So, in the future both Apple and EMI can say "Look at the figures...there's no demand for DRM-free music." If they priced the non and the with DRM tracks the same, the ideological argument would trounce the economic for doing away with DRM. If feels weird, a a little bit galling to have to pay to remove the noose you didn't ask for. Like, how unrefined brown rice costs more than processed rice. Knamean? There's less labor involved in the process so why do I have to pay more? On the whole, this is a very encouraging sign!
****a Myku Update*****
Yes, indeed, it is a backwards way of doing things. I can only imagine that it's because they're (for some reason) trying to "phase out" DRM instead of doing away with it altogether. I truly hope that it doesn't backfire, but for some reason, I don't think it will. Maybe because there's such an overwhelming populace of people who want DRM to die. We'll see what happens. I think, though, that the new DRM-free tunes are of a higher bit-rate than those currently available on iTunes Music Store.
Another Apple update here too: I just read that iTunes Music Store will now give you credit towards the purchase of a full album if you've previously purchased tracks from that album. They'll just subtract what you've already paid from the album cost. I think that's really sweet.
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