9 Comments

EMI Is DRM Free – For A Price

April 2, 2007 by in Apple,AV,News with 9 Comments

EMI has become the first music label to answer Steve Jobs call to rid the world of DRM, and crappy encoded music. In May all EMI songs and albums will be offered DRM-free and encoded at 256kbps AAC for $1.29 per song with the ability to upgrade your existing purchases for just $0.30. Apple quickly pointed out that this is not a price increase in the music store, rather its an additional iTunes product.

Trying to ride the wave, Apple will reach out to other labels starting today to give them the same deal. Steve Jobs hopes that 50% of all tracks to be DRM-free by end of the year, keep wishing Steve!

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  • John N

    Good for EMI to realize that people want DRM-free music. Hope they started a new trend.

  • http://www.domesticatedarcades.com GadgetDon

    If you buy a complete album, the price is the same. Also, it is possible to upgrade.

  • http://www.neil.moved.in Neil D’Souza

    DRM free for a higher price. Interesting twist. Extortion for a DRM free lifestyle? Looks like.

    But if others follow, and they probably will (considering that they could essentially double their income from users who download popular tracks) it should be very interesting for iTunes and Apple.

    God bless Apple!

    ;-)

  • Hanna

    Please do note that the EMI DRM-free files are encoded at 256 kbps instead of the DRM-laden 128 kbps tracks that sell for 99 cents US. You’re paying more for the higher quality and more bandwidth.

    Is it too much more? That’s arguable. But the price is not just for being DRM-free. Extortion is hardly an apt word.

  • Jeffrey

    HANNA,
    also, it takes the same amount of time and energy/cost for the machines to compress at 256 as it does at 128, why should we pay more for file because its quality is higher?

    Look at a computer.. we’ve been paying generally the same (or lower) price for a computer today as in the past, however the parts are at a much higher quality…

    Why should i pay more for a track that sounds pretty much the same?
    And… why not make the 99cent tracks DRM free too? just charge for the “higher quality”, not my freedom

    THEY CAN TAKE OUR 256kbps rate BUT THEY CAN’T TAKE OUR FREEDOM!!
    (oh wait, they just did..)

  • Roy

    This sounds like how the phone company will charge you for leaving your number out of the phone book.

  • Justin

    it ain’t apple lossless, but it’s close…

  • Alen Klaad

    I better buy the CD and do with it whatever I want….

  • http://www.musmo.com KwangErn Liew

    They have to cover production and development cost I think. Bandwidth is nothing to them since they are already so huge and have been demanding lots of bandwidth from ISPs. Similarly for their infrastructure costs.

    It’s just a strategy, may it be good or bad. At least it’s a start. :)

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