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EMI May Remove DRM From Parts of Catalog

Posted by Zonk on from the almost-too-good-to-be-true dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Ars Technica is reporting that EMI may announce on Monday that it will be freeing much of its catalog from the shackles of DRM. The Wall Street Journal, in a subscription-only portion of its site, is saying that that Apple CEO Steve Jobs will be present at the announcement in London and that the music will be sold through the iTunes Store and possibly other online outlets. In early February rumblings were heard that EMI was thinking about ditching DRM, but EMI was unable to entice the likes of Apple, Microsoft, and others. As it turned out, EMI wanted a considerable advance payment to offset what it perceived as a risk: selling DRM-free music online. EMI's position was simple: if they sell music without DRM, then users will find trading it that much easier." There's also rumours of an Apple/Beatles announcement sometime today, perhaps tied into this drm decision.

4 of 161 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Will it play on iPod and Rio? by Khakionion · · Score: 5, Informative

    "Or am i still locked into iTunes iPod combination?"

    DRM is what locks iTunes purchases to the iPod. If you buy non-DRM tracks, they will play on anything capable of reading that format. The iTunes Store sells AAC tracks, so chances are it will work with any modern music player.

    --
    OMG! Wau!
  2. Go Buy!! by Martian+of+Death · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If they do announce this, I will go to the iTunes store and buy $50 worth of EMI music this evening. The only way other companies will follow suit is if Apple is telling them that EMI is selling more songs after DRM is removed.

  3. Re:Will it play on iPod and Rio? by Corporate+Troll · · Score: 5, Informative

    If your Rio supports m4a files (assuming the non DRM will be AAC) and presents itself as a disk drive to your operating system, then the answer is yes. Right now you can just select and drag songs in iTunes to any folder and it will simply copy the files. It even does this with protected files. It's a useful feature for backing up.

  4. Confirmed! by datafr0g · · Score: 5, Informative

    On EMI's website....

    http://www.emigroup.com/Default.htm

    DRM-free downloads: EMI Music launches DRM-free superior sound quality downloads. From 1pm London time there will be a live audio webcast of this announcement.

    Press Release here: http://www.emigroup.com/Press/2007/press18.htm

    --
    "Who says nothing is impossible? Some people do it every day!" - Alfred E. Neuman