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. iTunes will continue to offer its entire catalog, currently over five million songs, in the same versions as today—128 kbps AAC encoding with DRM—at the same price of 99 cents per song, alongside DRM-free higher quality versions when available.
“We are going to give iTunes customers a choice—the current versions of our songs for the same 99 cent price, or new DRM-free versions of the same songs with even higher audio quality and the security of interoperability for just 30 cents more,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO, in the press release. “We think our customers are going to love this, and we expect to offer more than half of the songs on iTunes in DRM-free versions by the end of this year.”
“EMI and iTunes are once again teaming up to move the digital music industry forward by giving music fans higher quality audio that is virtually indistinguishable from the original recordings, with no usage restrictions on the music they love from their favorite artists,” said Eric Nicoli, CEO of EMI Group, in the press release.
With DRM-free music from the EMI catalog, iTunes customers will have the ability to download tracks from their favorite EMI artists without any usage restrictions that limit the types of devices or number of computers that purchased songs can be played on. DRM-free songs purchased from the iTunes Store will be encoded in AAC at 256 kbps, twice the current bit rate of 128 kbps, and will play on all iPods, Mac® or Windows computers, Apple TVs and soon iPhones, as well as many other digital music players.
iTunes will also offer customers a simple, one-click option to easily upgrade their entire library of all previously purchased EMI content to the higher quality DRM-free format for 30 cents a song. All EMI music videos will also be available in DRM-free format with no change in price.
The iTunes Store features the world’s largest catalog with over five million songs, 350 television shows and over 400 movies. The iTunes Store has sold over two billion songs, 50 million TV shows and over 1.3 million movies, making it the world’s most popular online music, TV and movie store.
MacDailyNews Take: The pressure on other labels to follow EMI’s lead will be impossible to ignore. Note that, when all is said and done, iTunes Store’s new track price will $1.29 going forward. We’re not sure how long the 99-cent DRM-laden, low quality tracks will remain for sale on iTunes Store, but our initial hunch is not for as long as some might think. How long do you think the 99-cent DRM tracks will last?
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I just wonder why the have to wait until May? Couldn’t that leave the door open for a rival to beat them to the plate?
I may not update my library, to me 128 is a fine bitrate, especially in AAC. To upgrade you’d really need to be commited to buying songs at that bitrate, something I’m unwilling to do. I’ve acquired almost all my music, all of it, in AAC 128 and don’t plan on changing anytime soon. It’s actually fantastic and fine… who comes up with this stuff about it being low quality?
Anyways… I might upgrade, but don’t know.. I stripped the DRM off using QTFairUse so ehh, there a point?