iTunes Drops DRM for EMI Tracks
April 2, 2007 by FredBreaking news… This is not an April Fools joke: iTunes will release significant portions ALL of EMI’s catalog on iTunes without DRM. From the press release:
EMI Music launches DRM-free superior sound quality downloads across its entire digital repertoire
EMI Group CEO Eric Nicoli today hosted a press conference at EMI’s headquarters in London where he announced that EMI Music is launching DRM-free superior quality downloads across its entire digital repertoire and that Apple’s iTunes Store will be the first online music store to sell EMI’s new downloads. Nicoli was joined by Apple CEO Steve Jobs. The event also featured a musical performance by The Good, The Bad & The Queen.
On this page you can find an audio webcast of the press conference which will be available for live streaming at 1pm London time with on demand archived streaming and MP3 download available shortly afterwards, the press release and a copy of the presentation slides.
Click here to listen to the audio webcast from today’s announcement.
Click here to download the pdf presentation.
Other juicy tidbits from the press release:
- EMI tracks with no DRM (Mp3) will cost $1.29 from iTunes and will also be available in other formats (AAC and WMA).
- All EMI music videos will also be available on the iTunes Store DRM-free with no change in price.
- iTunes will continue to offer consumers the ability to pay $0.99/€0.99/£0.79 for standard sound quality tracks with DRM still applied.
- Complete albums from EMI Music artists purchased on the iTunes Store will automatically be sold at the higher sound quality and DRM-free, with no change in the price.
- Entire catalog will be available in May
- Steve Jobs: “We estimate that well over half of iTunes tracks will be DRM free by the end of the year.”
Congratulations to all those who showed up at our DRM protests! Your voices have been heard!
April 2nd, 2007 at 10:11 am
Hmm…this is a great improvement. Too bad for the price hike though, and not having files in the mp3 format. Glad our voices can finally be heard
April 2nd, 2007 at 11:36 am
[…] unknown wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptOn this page you can find an audio webcast of the press conference which will be available for live streaming at 1pm London time with on demand archived streaming and MP3 download available shortly afterwards, the press release and a … […]
April 2nd, 2007 at 2:19 pm
[…] Tim O’Reilly wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptOn this page you can find an audio webcast of the press conference which will be available for live streaming at 1pm London time with on demand archived streaming and MP3 download available shortly afterwards, the press release and a … […]
April 2nd, 2007 at 7:04 pm
[…] Free Culture @ NYU’s blog is reporting that we may be one step closer to Steve Jobs’ utopian vision of a DRM-free society. […]
April 8th, 2007 at 12:14 am
[…] Most of my crusade-related work thus far has been on behalf of the world’s artists and consumers, via the Free Culture Club at the New York University, who’s work for society is now tangible, but more recently I’ve traveled to “that Sodom and Gomorrah on the Missississip“, as Matt Groening infamously described it, to help the good people there a wee bit. The issues related to my crusades will be continuously harped upon; consider your precious self warned. […]