brianmole 0 Posted April 2, 2007 Report Share Posted April 2, 2007 EMI and Apple sign landmark deal to scrap DRM EMI has become the first major record label to ditch digital rights management and start selling music online in CD quality and without copy protection. In a deal struck with Apple’s iTunes Music Store, announced in London this lunchtime - at a press conference which included a performance from The Good, The Bad & The Queen - EMI said it is making available "superior quality audio" across its entire digital catalogue. The DRM-free tracks would be available first through iTunes but will subsequently be rolled out across other retail services. As EMI became the first major label to embrace Jobs’ vision, Jobs today said, "Selling digital music DRM-free is the right step forward for the music industry. 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." EMI Group CEO Eric Nicoli said the deal represented "a major step in our quest to provide consumers with the best possible digital music experience". He added, "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. "Apple have been a true pioneer in digital music, and we are delighted that they share our vision of an interoperable market that provides consumers with greater choice, quality, convenience and value for money." The tracks will be available for 99p in the UK, with tracks at the existing quality available for 79p. Consumers will be able to buy entire superior quality albums at the standard AAC price, and upgrade to superior qualitt tracks for 20p per track. In a controversial statement issued in February, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said that DRM software “hasn’t worked, and may never work” to halt music piracy. “If the big four music companies would license Apple their music without the requirement that it be protected with a DRM, we would switch to selling only DRM-free music on our iTunes store,” said Jobs. “Apple will embrace this wholeheartedly.” ..............This is a stop press alert service from Music Week................ ................For more news, check out www.musicweek.com................... Link to post Share on other sites
wizard 0 Posted April 2, 2007 Report Share Posted April 2, 2007 It's about time ( especially for the higher quality ) lets hope the others follow The oldest swinger in town....... probably. Happy Easter.. well I have seen easter eggs in the shops Link to post Share on other sites
Andy Westcott 0 Posted April 2, 2007 Report Share Posted April 2, 2007 WOOHOO!! We're getting there! I'd be extremely happy with just an extra 20p a track for CD quality, as I'm sure a lot of other people would. Must now start considering the idea of using a laptop... Link to post Share on other sites
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