Apple today announced that EMI Music’s entire digital catalog of music will be available for purchase DRM-free (without digital rights management) from the iTunes Store worldwide in May. DRM-free tracks from EMI will be offered at higher quality 256 kbps AAC encoding, resulting in audio quality indistinguishable from the original recording, for just $1.29 per song. In addition, iTunes customers will be able to easily upgrade their entire library of all previously purchased EMI content to the higher quality DRM-free versions for just 30 cents a song.
“Apple has dominated the market for digital music players not through lock-in but through product offerings that have resonated with consumers. As Apple itself has pointed out, there’s relatively little iTunes music on each iPod so this offering is not likely to tip the scales in the favor of any other player. iPods have driven customers to the iTunes store, it’s never been the other way around and it’s still the music player itself that drives sales,” Michael Gartenberg blogs for Jupiter Research.
“So what’s the net? This is a great PR win for Apple and Steve Jobs. Apple was seen as the company delivering DRM free music to consumers, a move that will only increase their overall mindshare and of course, mindshare has a funny way of becoming more marketshare. It also goes a long way to address regulators in Europe complaining about the iPod’s lack of interoperability,” Gartenberg writes.
“For other vendors in the hardware space, it will eventually remove the issue of iTunes lock in but if their sales don’t take off, it will be clear that it wasn’t lock in to the iPod economy that prevented their success. For other music sellers, the news isn’t as important. It’s not likely that subscription services will be able to allow those customers to download music without DRM and that’s the core differentiation against iTunes at the moment,” Gartenberg writes.
Gartenberg writes, “It is a good step forward for consumers but more importantly, it showed Apple at the forefront of acting as ‘champion’ for consumer interests. After all, it wasn’t Rob Glaser or Bill Gates up there with EMI.”
Full article here.
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For those DRM winners, “critics” and conspiracy theorists out there……STFU!!
Steve Ballmer: “MMUMPH! GRRUUEMPH! ARRRGPHM! WLLRGHAHH!”
Sorry, he can’t talk because he’s sucking the #$@%s of music industry executives.
Once he wipes off his face and chin he’ll be issuing delusional statements and throwing chairs.
MDNMW: didn’t, as in “Oh no, he didn’t!”
Then of course comes the shutout by other online music stores. “Our MP3 player doesn’t work with iTunes”
And then Apple’s monopoly falls.
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No, because other players are crap. Duuuh. Are you high? Did you even read the top of the page?
There is no lock in, and really never was, barely 3%, get it?
Gartenberg must be really happy that he made that u-turn on the way to Redmond and doesn’t have to spend the rest of his life spreading propaganda about a flawed product developed by defective programmers working for a dysfunctional company.
Also, he doesn’t run the risk of being hit in the back of the head by low-flying office furniture on a daily basis.
mark said, “The big win here is that Apple is really cementing AAC as the “legal” audio standard, and stopping WMA from going any further.”
Bingo, mark. That’s an excellent point. While all the idiot critics were bashing Apple over Fairplay DRM, they seemed to give Microsoft a pass on the use of their proprietary WMA encoding. Apple has just handed Microsoft the hot potato and put the target on Ballmer’s back.
So with DRM gone, anything Downloaded from Microsoft is still not multi-platform. It’s time for the EU idiots to stop screwing over Apple and nail the real culprit.
So with DRM gone, anything Downloaded from Microsoft is still not multi-platform. It’s time for the EU idiots to stop screwing over Apple and nail the real culprit.
A norwegian ombudsman complaining about Apple is miles apart from the European Commission slapping multi-million fines onto Microsoft’s monopoly abuses…
I think the relation is quite appropriate, all in all.
So where does this leave the Anti-DRM flash mobber’s? Why don’t you fricking punks volunteer to pick up the grounds around the Apple Stores, lord knows you shit them up. Or, how about an open letter (remember those?) to Mr. Jobs and the EMI leaders for sticking their necks out for your lame asses, wouldn’t that be nice and all…Dipsticks.
Go Apple!