EMI music on iTunes -- now DRM free and higher quality

It's been rumored for weeks and now, just as the Wall Street Journal predicted, EMI music is DRM-free. True to his word, Steve Jobs has "embraced it in a heartbeat" making it available for download from Apple's iTunes store, first, starting in May. It's taken so so long but now even (one of) the Big Four realizes that DRM fails to prevent piracy -- succeeding only at being an unnecessary nuisance for the vast majority of law abiding consumers. Bravo EMI, bravo. Now it's your turn to vote with your dollars. We'll see just how long the remaining majors can claim that removing DRM is "completely without logic or merit."

Update: And now for the specifics: iTunes customers will have the choice of 256kbps, non-DRM'ed tracks for $1.29 per, or the same songs in regular 128kbps AAC locked up all nice and tight with FairPlay for the usual 99 cents. What's more, any EMI tunes you've ever downloaded from the store can be upgraded to the new, higher-quality versions for just 30 cents apiece.

[Eric Chiu @ Apr 2nd 2007 8:28AM]

No wonder da Piratebay moved to North Korea, they saw a bright future :)

[chr1s @ Apr 2nd 2007 8:29AM]

And you pay more for it (1.29€ / 1.29€).... which is bulls..t.

[akintz @ Apr 2nd 2007 8:43AM]

It may be BS to pay more for no DRM... but you're get 256kbps bit rate with that extra 30 cents. I know there are a lot of people who have always complained that even with DRM, the bitrates for protected tracks are terrible. So this is also part of that premium price.

Guess I'll have to figure out who's on EMI that I might actually listen to (or already do)...

Here's a list of signed artists:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_musicians_signed_to_EMI

[Ignacio @ Apr 2nd 2007 9:58AM]

"And you pay more for it (1.29€ / 1.29€).... which is bulls..t."

What's that? "bulls..t"? If you want to write bullshit, write *bullshit*!

Anyway... It's USD 0.30 / € 0.30 extra only if you buy *a single track*.

Full albums are all 256kbps, DRM-free at NO EXTRA COST (unless you had already bough them, in which case they'll charge you an extra 0.30 per track to re-download the 256kbps version)

[Eric Chiu @ Apr 2nd 2007 8:31AM]

the only reason for me to buy via iTMS is that is much more easier than those p2p alternatives. At least, the tunes are well sorted with good album arts, although they r off low-quality. Now Steve & Co is just giving this advantage away... brilliant.

People don't pirate because of the legitmate version is too difficult to use. They just don't want to pay.

[jono @ Apr 2nd 2007 8:37AM]

the question I ask is: When will indie labels be allowed to follow suit and offer DRM free tracks? My guess is that A LOT of artists would want DRM free tracks at the 128kb/99c price point. Will apple facilitate this?

[firteen888 @ Apr 2nd 2007 8:38AM]

Stupid question, but what is EMI music??

[Nick @ Apr 2nd 2007 8:53AM]

EMI are a record label who release Albums and Singles for Artists, they're one of the Major players in the Music Industry.
If you look through your CD collection you'll see at least one EMI logo on the back of the Jewel case.

[AndrewNeo @ Apr 2nd 2007 9:41AM]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_musicians_signed_to_EMI

[firteen888 @ Apr 2nd 2007 8:48AM]

OK, so let me make sure I have this right. Since the music is no longer DRM, does that mean I can download from Itunes and burn the music to a cd?

[Mike @ Apr 2nd 2007 8:53AM]

that's already possible

[normis @ Apr 2nd 2007 8:57AM]

that's 256bits AAC, which is excellent.

[Marco @ Apr 2nd 2007 9:01AM]

Good job.
At least we can chose.
I will put my money on EMI.

[Ian @ Apr 2nd 2007 9:01AM]

Finally! Please take my $$! I've bought less than 10 songs and no CD's since about 2001 because of DRM (pirated a grand total of 5 songs, so I'm only a little morally corrupt). All I want is the ability to play music on all my DAPs. EMI is going to make a ton of cash from honest people who've been waiting for the CD to die (along with paying $15 for 3 songs you like), and won't purchase songs twice for multiple DAPs. They'll also make a ton of money from people who find it easier to be honest and pay than go through the trouble to pirate music.

[andy @ Apr 2nd 2007 9:01AM]

Finally, some real progress!

[Jeff @ Apr 2nd 2007 9:09AM]

MacRumors predicted that this would be a DRM-related event before the Wall Street Journal

http://www.macrumors.com/2007/04/01/steve-jobs-and-emi-press-conference-no-more-drm/

[AJB @ Apr 2nd 2007 9:10AM]

Seems that EMI has quite a repertoire of classical artists--seems that's an audience that the higher bitrate would appeal to.

Didn't Apple introduce its own form of lossless encoding (ALAC, similar to FLAC) for those who are interested in quality? I would pay extra for lossless audio, but not for the "privilege" of getting DRM-free music. Would anyone else pay extra for lossless audio?

[Rick Lyon @ Apr 2nd 2007 9:24AM]

Just buy the CD then.

[johnny b. good @ Apr 2nd 2007 9:29AM]

Absolutely. I think there should be two options, anyway:

1. AAC 256kb - 0.99$
2. Lossless - 0.99$ + small premium charge

[johnny b. good @ Apr 2nd 2007 2:16PM]

Absolutely. I think there should be two options, anyway:

1. AAC 256kb - 0.99$
2. Lossless - 0.99$ + small premium charge

[Dan @ Apr 2nd 2007 9:18AM]

Sweet, DRM free Garth Brooks! Yeehaw!

[Sasha S. @ Apr 2nd 2007 9:19AM]

WELL DONE APPLE & EMI!

Someone needs to show morons from Sony, Vivendi and others that they are wrong and majority of people wre honest customers.

Engadget guys, please organise a poll to see who will do what (Upgrade to DRM free, continue buying DRM, contiunue P2P, etc)

[Elbow Tom @ Apr 2nd 2007 9:21AM]

I'd pay 1.50 for drm free flac. How long till they start offering lossless?

[firteen888 @ Apr 2nd 2007 9:21AM]

I'm currently able to download music off of itunes and then burn it to a cd??? how the hell do I do this?? And if I am able to do this, what will this DRM free music do that it couldn't do before?? Boy am I a novice when it comes to this stuff.

[Thataboy @ Apr 2nd 2007 9:32AM]

You simply create a playlist of your desired songs (including songs bought from iTunes), select the playlist, and click Burn Disc in the lower right hand corner.

iTunes' DRM has always allowed this. If a friend sends you a song HE bought from iTunes, you cannot burn that unless you have his password. But you can burn any song YOU bought.

[matthew @ Apr 2nd 2007 9:43AM]

this is how people have been circumventing the DRM to begin with. Burn CD, Import back in itunes, no DRM!

[Jim @ Apr 2nd 2007 9:22AM]

So will the iTunes store have a special DRM-free designated section or an EMI section so that you'll know you're buying DRM-free music or not?

[Ben @ Apr 2nd 2007 9:31AM]

A great move from EMI and Apple. It seems Jobs wasn't just blowing hot air when he publicly criticised DRM, more likely he was trying to prove a point and close a deal.

It will be interesting to see (although I doubt we will) what the deal is that Apple have made as EMI were previously talking up up-front payments for DRM-free music.

The key is though that Apple see this as a good thing for their business (publicity, advertising revenue, power over the gateway, hardware sales) and they are bringing others round to their view. Which hopefully will continue to be a good thing for the consumer.

http://gamenian.blogspot.com/2007/04/apple-emi-embrace-drm-free-music.html
http://gamenian.blogspot.com/2007/02/apple-vs-drm-part-2.html

[David @ Apr 2nd 2007 9:33AM]

Why can you only get DRM free music on the higher quality music which costs more money and takes up more space? this is just another way of squeezing more money out of consumers

[SoloMalee @ Apr 2nd 2007 9:42AM]

EMI - The Sex Pistols

"There's unlimited supply
And there is no reason why
I tell you it was all a frame
They only did it 'cos of fame
Who?
E.M.I. E.M.I. E.M.I."

So I guess EMI are the goodies now. Does that mean hell froze over and global warming is solved now?

All in all, a great day for music! Finally the industry begins to understand their market, their customers and their business.

[R2P2 @ Apr 2nd 2007 9:42AM]

This won't really do much for interoperability - how many non-Apple portable music players support AAC, even without DRM?

Anyway, it's nice to see they're going to offer an "upgrade" option where you can get the 256kbps files by paying the $0.30/track difference. Wonder how many of their artists' albums I have, and how many of those they'll offer this for...

[Galley @ Apr 2nd 2007 9:56AM]

PDAs
Cellphones
Nearly all major brands of car stereos.

[akintz @ Apr 2nd 2007 9:51AM]

Not "a lot" but a few... even the Zune...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Audio_Coding#Products_that_support_AAC

[macattacks10 @ Apr 2nd 2007 6:14PM]

Also, without DRM, you could easily reecode into mp3 or whatever of your choice.

[MikeN @ Apr 2nd 2007 10:09AM]

Not trying to sound smarmy, but what about QTFairUse? Doesn't this program legally remove (for personal use) the DRM restrictions? So I've heard...

In any case, I do appreciate the higher bitrate. I really think anyone that listens to music seriously can tell a night/day difference between 128/256.

I'm still holding out for the day when DRM is just gone... gone. I can picture the trouble that people who can't burn a CD from iTunes are going to have trying to figure out which of their tracks are DRM'd, etc...

[Goodman @ Apr 2nd 2007 10:26AM]

Yaay, my Sansa Rhapsody player supports non-DRM AAC files.

Of course, the Rhapsody player also offers the best music subscription support of any player in America. So my player is pretty jam packed full of Rhapsody channels and music already. Still, Apple has a few bands the other services lack (and vice versa).

Hey, the Helio Ocean phone I'm planning on getting supports AAC too!

[mathew @ Apr 2nd 2007 10:35AM]

The Mute back catalog as DRM-free digital downloads? I'm all over that.

[Evan @ Apr 2nd 2007 10:38AM]

This is great news for consumers, music and movie fans, and for the future of digital content. HungryFlix.com has been offering movie downloads with no DRM for years now and we really belive that DRM is not a solution. It is rewarding to now see the major studios and Apple agreeing with us. The price increases in unfortunate and some will complain that instead of moving toward supporting consumer rights these guys are just making a new buck. But this is a start people.

[steve @ Apr 2nd 2007 10:47AM]

So when will we be able to have an AAC converter within Itunes so we can use non apple product with our Itunes libraries? Some of us own other devices (Oakley thump, etc) and want to be able to easily use.

[Joel @ Apr 2nd 2007 11:15AM]

Do you people look at the menus? This is already available. You can convert songs into MANY formats in iTunes as long as they are DRM free and now they are. I don't understand what the bitching is about. This is a WIN for the consumer.

J

[surfwax95 @ Apr 2nd 2007 10:50AM]

DRM-FREE KENNY ROGERS, HERE I COME!

[steve @ Apr 2nd 2007 2:03PM]

I have visited the local apple store and all they could tell me was to download a 3rd party software to accomplish my goal. So if you are an apple employee than you have some internal training to do.

[Rich @ Apr 2nd 2007 11:18AM]

This is brilliant news. Virtually every phone capable of playing MP3s can also play AAC and anyone can license it if they want to add it to their product.

[nikster @ Apr 2nd 2007 11:20AM]

YOU CAN BURN CDS FROM ANY ITUNES SONG EVEN IF ITS DRMD.

jeez i had no idea so many ppl didn't know that. on engadget, no less! it is and was always possible to burn an audio CD from iTunes then re-import it as mp3 with no DRM. the only drawback was that you were converting 128 bit AAC, e.g. not so hot quality.

anyway - finally! iTunes store suddenly looks a lot more interesting. finally 256 bit, too!

blind tests with high-end audio equipment have shown that even professional musicians can't tell 256 bit encoded mp3s from lossless. if pro musicians with equipment worth 100s of thousands of dollars can't tell the difference, it's good enough for me. btw the same test also showed that everyone could sort out 128 bit encoded material. and AAC is generally better than mp3.

[Marian @ Apr 3rd 2007 10:15AM]

But iT[M]S never sold MP3s. AAC is way better in terms of sound quality. In my experience, 128bps AAC is better than 192bps MP3.

[Trent @ Apr 2nd 2007 11:29AM]

Yeah, I will buy a few bits from EMI on this news. I don't want to go overboard though as EMI hasn't dropped DRM on everything yet. I'm still not sure if I want the RIAA to survive at all. The hurt the RIAA has caused is just too deep at this point I think? I don't see the reason for the RIAA to exist anymore. I'd rather see all the bands go Independent.

[Mike @ Apr 2nd 2007 11:50AM]

Jono- eMusic has already been offering many indie tracks DRM-free. I'm not huge into indie, so I can't tell you what kind of selection they have. Check em out.

[Flying? @ Apr 2nd 2007 1:06PM]

Do the absence of DRM and the little bit higher quality justify the 30 extra cents? I don't think so ... it cost them nothing or almost ! Overpriced.

[scoville @ Apr 2nd 2007 3:54PM]

The additional cost applies only to individual tracks. Full albums are still the same price.

[Bhaal @ Apr 2nd 2007 1:33PM]

@Flying? So any retailer that prices their product above what it costs them to get it into the shop is overpricing their stuff? Is no-one allowed to make a profit then?