I guess it’s true.
EMI’s entire digital music catalog will be available DRM-free via iTunes in May, the music label said Monday at a press conference in London. The BBC, C/Net, Reuters, the NY Times and the Washington Post have more
Major music label EMI Group plans to sell a premium level of digital downloads through Apple’s iTunes Store. For $1.29 per song, consumers will be able to buy higher-quality digital music lacking digital rights management.
Bottom line:While Apple CEO Steve Jobs expresses confidence that the EMI deal will pave the way for widespread sales of DRM-free music, at least one analyst thinks that other record companies will “wait and see the proof that it worked.”
Higher-quality music files, which will play on any computer and any digital-audio player, will not replace the copy-protected EMI music currently sold through iTunes. Rather, they will complement the standard 99-cent iTunes downloads and will be sold at a premium: $1.29 per song.
Consumers who have already purchased EMI tracks containing Apple’s FairPlay copy protection will be able to upgrade them to the premium version for 30 cents, EMI said. Full albums in DRM-free form can be bought at the same price as standard iTunes albums.
“We are committed to embracing change, and to developing products and services that consumers really want to buy,” said Eric Nicoli, chief executive of EMI. Nicoli cited internal EMI tests in which higher-quality, DRM-free songs outsold its lower-quality, copy-protected counterparts 10-to-1.
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