AfterDawn: News

DRM-free EMI catalogue arrives on iTunes

After announcing last month that they would be launching EMI's full catalogue DRM-free on their iTunes platform, Apple finally announced that they had made good on their promise and iTunes Plus was launched this morning.

The tracks are in AAC form, DRM-free and encoded at 256kpbs, but will cost $1.29, a 30 cent premium over all DRM infested tracks.



User can choose to upgrade their old DRM versions of the track to the new DRM-free version for 30 cents as well so they do not need to purchase the song all over again.

There will still be the option however, to purcahse EMI's tracks with DRM and encoded at 128kbps for the original 99 cents. Apple CEO Steve Jobs noted that he hopes to have 50 percent of Apple's catalogue DRM-free by the end of 2007. This follows statements made by Jobs that DRM did nothing to prevent piracy.

"This is a tremendous milestone for digital music," said Eric Nicoli, CEO of EMI Group. "Consumers are going to love listening to higher quality iTunes Plus tracks from their favorite EMI artists with no usage restrictions."

However, if you are planning to download the new DRM-free music and share over P2P networks, forget about it. All files you download are embedded with your name and email address, which will definetely come back to haunt you if you were to get caught illegally uploading the new songs.

"No doubt lots of folks will be looking carefully to see how this goes over with the market," JupiterResearch senior analyst Michael Gartenberg said.

We will be watching as well.

Source:
BetaNews

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 30 May 2007 13:12

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• 12 comments

• Pop_Smith

  They needed to do this from the beginning! As the article says:
  
  Quote:All files you download are embedded with your name and email address.
  
  Thats all they need to do to catch pirates. Plus, the real pirates use Retail versions of CDs just before they hit stores and rip 'em the real way (i.e. with LAME) and upload them elsewhere long before they hit P2P networks.

  30.5.2007 13:45 #1

• borhan9

  Even after this i wont use itunes online store. Its a great media file manager but anything else i don't think so.

  30.5.2007 14:34 #2

• AXT

  WOW all encodings that have DRM are encoded at 128kbps....speaking of bad quality music. Not only is it bad quality, but it also has DRM. That is what i call a lose lose situation for the consumer.
  Good thing i don't buy music online.

  30.5.2007 14:37 #3

• PeaInAPod

  Again,
  Quote:All files you download are embedded with your name and email addressThis is how it should have always been.

  30.5.2007 14:54 #4

• akaangus

  Quote:
  However, if you are planning to download the new DRM-free music and share over P2P networks, forget about it. All files you download are embedded with your name and email address, which will definetely come back to haunt you if you were to get caught illegally uploading the new songs. DRM-FREE? With personally identifiable info? Is that not DRM in itself? It would be like me advertising NEW DIET PEPSI! SUGAR FREE! (Added Glucose/Fructose).

  30.5.2007 22:45 #5

• Spenman91

  It doesn't hurt you unless you do something stupid like putting them on a P2P network. Other than that it shouldn't effect what you do with it.

  31.5.2007 04:20 #6

• duckNrun

  I wonder how long it will be until someone makes a scrubber to clean the private data out of the file.

  31.5.2007 06:19 #7

• chrialex

  shhhh!

  31.5.2007 13:45 #8

• AXT

  Originally posted by duckNrun:I wonder how long it will be until someone makes a scrubber to clean the private data out of the file....less than two weeks.

  31.5.2007 17:18 #9

• hermes_vb

  Quote:
  However, if you are planning to download the new DRM-free music and share over P2P networks, forget about it. All files you download are embedded with your name and email address, which will definetely come back to haunt you if you were to get caught illegally uploading the new songs. What if you always buy your songs using prepaid cards, fake email, pirate copy of windows and Wi-Fi from a hotspot? I don't think it email and name really matters then.

  31.5.2007 18:38 #10

• mglez86

  Quote:chrialex (Newbie) 31 May 2007 17:45
  shhhh!
  they already know this stuff, but don't make it more obvious than it already is, lmas

  1.6.2007 12:30 #11

• Unfocused

  What happened to Steve Jobs statement that he wasn't going to bend to the industry? I remember him saying that he wasn't going to raise the price past 99 cents.
  
  Greed is Evil.

  28.6.2007 07:38 #12