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Jobs gets his DRM-free wish
Over 50% of iTunes music to be DRM-free by year's end according to Steve Jobs

EMI has taken a huge step forward in the fight against digital rights management (DRM). The company announced today that its entire digital music library will be available with higher quality audio and will also be free of DRM.

The company first began tinkering with DRM-free music files in early December. At that time, EMI offered DRM-free music tracks by Lily Allen, Norah Jones and Relient K though Yahoo! Music.

Soon after Apple CEO Steve Jobs made his bid for a DRM-free music world, EMI once again batted around the idea of expanding its use of DRM-free music. Anonymous executives revealed that EMI was in talks with Apple, Microsoft, Real Networks and Yahoo! to provide unprotected music files.

Today's announcement could set the ball rolling for other companies to jump on the DRM-free bandwagon. "Our goal is to give consumers the best possible digital music experience. By providing DRM-free downloads, we aim to address the lack of interoperability which is frustrating for many music fans. 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 Group CEO Eric Nicoli.

Seeing as how Steve Jobs has been one of the champions of DRM-free music, it's no surprise that he also had commentary on EMI's decision. "Selling digital music DRM-free is the right step forward for the music industry," said Jobs. "EMI has been a great partner for iTunes and is once again leading the industry as the first major music company to offer its entire digital catalogue DRM-free."

iTunes users will be able to purchase unprotected AAC format music files at 256 kbps (current music files are encoded at 128 kbps) for $1.29 a track in May from iTunes. Complete albums will also be available DRM-free, but will not feature higher price tags. Customers who have already purchased DRM-enabled music tracks from iTunes will be able to upgrade to the higher-quality, DRM-free versions for $0.30 per track. Tracks which still feature DRM will continue to be made available at $0.99 each.

In addition, EMI will make its music videos available on iTunes free of DRM. The prices remain unchanged for these files.

“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,” said Jobs.

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Good Start
By OrSin on 4/2/2007 10:39:23 AM , Rating: 2
Very nice start. The $.30 more is worth it just for the better bit rate.




RE: Good Start
By ahkey on 4/2/2007 10:42:18 AM , Rating: 1
Fantastic. Now do videos!


RE: Good Start
By mikecel79 on 4/2/2007 10:57:23 AM , Rating: 5
Right from the article:

quote:
In addition, EMI will make its music videos available on iTunes free of DRM. The prices remain unchanged for these files.


RE: Good Start
By ahkey on 4/3/2007 8:27:43 AM , Rating: 2
My fault, I should've been more specific. I was referring to the enhanced quality, not DRM.


RE: Good Start
By gus6464 on 4/2/2007 10:45:55 AM , Rating: 5
Yeah also considering that full album prices are still going to be $9.99 after the no drm switch things are really starting to look great. I might just start buying music from the itunes store now.


RE: Good Start
By Lazarus Dark on 4/2/2007 12:44:58 PM , Rating: 3
I hate to say it but, yeah, I might finally be interested in itms after this announcement. In the past, I have only dl'd a couple of songs off limewire, mostly either out of print or live or unreleased stuff from my favorite bands, but a few have been one offs from movie soundtracks that I simply refuse to pay for the full soundtrack just for one song. I'll have to look around and see what is offered on itunes as I mostly listen to small metal bands, but I'd love to have legal copies of some old 80's stuff and some classic rock that I just don't care to buy the full albums.

We should declare this an international holiday, this is a huge victory for consumers everywhere. I look forward to seeing this snowball across the board. I would rather be legit, and I think hollywood and the music industry should realize that I won't buy drm that limits my ability to use the product, so in fact drm-free legal downloads could ONLY increase sales and in fact decrease piracy at least partially. I know it sounds naive, but the honor system gets more happy customers than having big brother stare over your shoulder watching what your doing with that mp3.


RE: Good Start
By SunAngel on 4/2/07, Rating: -1
RE: Good Start
By BMFPitt on 4/2/2007 12:55:06 PM , Rating: 3
In a few months when Apple reports a huge surge in buying, I'll be sure to laugh at you.


RE: Good Start
By alifbaa on 4/2/2007 1:04:43 PM , Rating: 3
Which is exactly why DRM is a complete waste of time.

How much impact did DRM have on people's ability to use the media? Lots. How much did it stifle advancement of entertainment related technology? Lots. How much piracy was prevented by DRM? None. Everyone continued to rip from CDs and download from the internet.

IMO, the prices are still way to high to jump in on full scale. Filling a player will still cost an astronomical amount of money using all legal sources. My understanding is that this is caused by the outrageous licensing fees the record companies are charging the stores, often accounting for over 90% of the final price.


RE: Good Start
By AlexWade on 4/2/2007 1:12:49 PM , Rating: 2
SunAngel must work for Sony or one of the other big labels, because they all assume we are criminals just waiting to pirate. What other solution exists since the real pirates always break DRM and the only ones who are punished are the honest ones?


RE: Good Start
By MonkeyPaw on 4/2/2007 2:21:31 PM , Rating: 2
Just so you know, I buy all my music and think this idea is great. DRM is frustrating for people (like me) who actually pay for thier collection, yet still want to be able to play it how they want, when they want. I was pretty upset when I upgraded to Vista, only to find that Walmart's music service would not transfer my licenses. Fortunately, I had backed up all my downloaded music by ripping them to CDs, but as a consequense I had to re-rip everything and label it myself. The thought of that whole process is a huge turn-off for me, and if DRM protection goes away, I WILL be purchasing more music this way, because I know I can easily back everything up as well as transfer it to my favorite devices. It also means I can upgrade to a new OS or computer when the time comes without issue.

I'm all for paying, just take away the hassle!


Steve Jobs sticks to his word.
By mlittl3 on 4/2/2007 11:43:09 AM , Rating: 5
I posted some comments for the story here at dailytech about a month ago when Steve Jobs wrote a little article about his impressions of the music industry. In this article Steve Jobs said he would drop DRM in a heartbeat if the labels let him. About 50% of the posts claim Steve is a lying shill. I commented that Steve Jobs has done a lot for the consumer (negotiated $0.99 per song instead of just selling albums like the labels wanted to) and we should take him at his word and let his actions speak louder than Apple bashers.

Today, I can proudly say that Steve Jobs has acted true to his word. Good job Steve Jobs and Apple.




RE: Steve Jobs sticks to his word.
By Bonrock on 4/2/2007 12:27:30 PM , Rating: 3
Let's get one thing straight--Steve Jobs is a corporate executive, not a public servant. He doesn't do things that benefit consumers unless those things benefit Apple too.

It's just how capitalism works. You can say the same thing for pretty much any other for-profit company.


RE: Steve Jobs sticks to his word.
By UNCjigga on 4/2/2007 1:46:09 PM , Rating: 2
Well, keep your eyes peeled buddy. If Apple's competitors in the digital audio world have any clue, they will immediately add DRM-free .m4a compatibility with their next firmware update if they don't support it already.

Then we'll see if Steve allows iTunes to support syncing DRM-free music on other devices.


RE: Steve Jobs sticks to his word.
By plinden on 4/2/2007 2:22:47 PM , Rating: 2
Apple will never allow iTunes syncing with other players, but with DRM-free music, it would be simple to get them onto other players.


RE: Steve Jobs sticks to his word.
By Pirks on 4/2/07, Rating: -1
RE: Steve Jobs sticks to his word.
By Questar on 4/2/2007 4:47:30 PM , Rating: 2
There is so much wrong with your post I hardly know where to start.

So, you've got tons of cheapo 120GB hard drives that are small enough to fit in a Zen? How big is that beast?

What, exactly would the point be of converting a 256k file to a 320k file? You don't actually think you would increase the quality, do you?

And BTW, iTMS IS the number one online music store. And number four period.


RE: Steve Jobs sticks to his word.
By Pirks on 4/2/2007 4:57:50 PM , Rating: 1
quote:
you've got tons of cheapo 120GB hard drives that are small enough to fit in a Zen?
you bet
quote:
How big is that beast?
3" x 4.4" 0.86"
quote:
What would the point be of converting a 256k file to a 320k file?
MP3 320kbit is the closest I can get quality-wise to AAC 256kbit, anything lower than 320kbit and I lose even more. Hence 320kbit is the best fit for me.
quote:
iTMS IS the number one online music store
nah, it's not the number one music store, it's a number one iPodded DRM shit store (until they convert it to DRM-free AAC). _real_ number one DRM-free music store so far has been allofmp3.com :P


RE: Steve Jobs sticks to his word.
By cjc1103 on 4/2/2007 5:19:37 PM , Rating: 2
I can't image why you think re-encoding a lossy audio format (AC, MP3, WMA) into another lossy format is going to sound good. A lossy format is not equivalent to the original CD track; audio definition is lost during compression, and you cannot restore the original file. If you re-encode it to another lossy format, you are taking a double hit. Even re-encoding at the highest bitrate you can find, the result is going to be lower quality than the original file.


RE: Steve Jobs sticks to his word.
By Pirks on 4/2/2007 5:24:10 PM , Rating: 1
quote:
I can't image why you think re-encoding a lossy audio format (AC, MP3, WMA) into another lossy format is going to sound good
it will definitely sound good for my ears, and given choice between buying new expensive Zune or other AAC capable player, and reencoding AAC into 320kbit MP3, I choose the latter