Today Apple announced that it will start selling DRM-free tracks from the EMI label in it’s popular iTunes Music Store.
The tracks will cost $1.29 but people who currently own tracks under the EMI label can pay only $0.30 to ‘upgrade’. The new DRM-free tracks are also twice the quality (128kbps to 256kbps) and there’s no restrictions on how many computers or devices the music tracks are put onto.
Steve Jobs says he’s going to extend this offer to all the music labels that list their music in the iTunes Music Store, he said that he hopes to have half of the iTunes Music Store song using this new format by the end of the year. He mentioned that the DRM-free songs will be available in May.
BoingBoing says, “Nicoli cited internal EMI tests in which higher-quality, DRM-free songs outsold its lower-quality, copy-protected counterparts 10 to 1. “
That’s quite important, and it just goes to show how much people would prefer to have DRM-free music. It allows for much more flexibility. Since Apple is doing this people can use iTunes Music Store & iTunes for it’s ease of use and awesome functionality and they don’t have to be tied to using an iPod to listen to their music.
Extra Resources:
Apple Press Release
BoingBoing
Digg
TUAW
Engadget
Comments
6 responses to “iTunes to Sell DRM-Free Music!”
I’ve often thought that the DH was like playing chess with another queen.
I have to disagree with you Don, the DH adds a different piece to the chess puzzle. Do you pitch to the dh and hope he gets out, or do you pitch around him to get to the man following him. The DH rule is just a different type of strategy used to differentiate the two leagues. Keep the DH
Don,
Boy, you’re wrong here in so many ways, I don’t know where to begin. Let me start with a paraphrase from Washington Post columnist Tom Boswell, who once wrote that watching a pitcher hit 21 times a week for a few seconds of strategy is boring and makes little sense. The double switch is no more complex than getting a wireless connection to work with a new Mac.
The DH does not hid the weakness of the bullpen, but rather exposes it as lineups are considerable deeper.
But you are at your most wrong when you say that the National League has better hitters and better hitting than does the AL. If this is so, can you please explain why the AL wins the All Star Game EVERY YEAR? Why the AL has a winning record against the NL in Interleague Play EVERY YEAR, and usually by a very wide margin?
No one who has ever loved baseball in Seattle and watched the greatest DH in history, Edgar Martinez play can ever hate the DH. It allowed a great man, a true hitter to play when his hammys would never have let him play the field.
Do not despair, there is yet hope. Case in point – the plague of artificial turf has all but been eliminated from MLB – Hosannah!
Surely the DH is next to go. Let us pray.
I have never cared for the DH. It takes the strategy out of the game. The double switch, bunting … remember bunting? I would not be upset if the DH went away …