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Apple To Grant All Labels DRM-Free Distribution

Posted by kdawson on from the you-asked-for-it dept.

SexCaptain writes "MacRumors.com reveals a letter circulated by Apple to all producers of content for the iTunes Store, announcing that from May onward they can sell their music at higher quality and free of DRM. Hopefully this opens the doors for labels like Netwerk. This is a big step in the right direction, although it's unclear exactly what Apple means by 'higher quality,' and there is no mention of price changes. (Apple charges $0.30 more per song for DRM-free content from EMI and encodes it at 256K.) Quoting from the letter: 'Many of you have reached out to iTunes to find out how you can make your songs available higher quality and DRM-free," Apple wrote in the communication. "Starting next month, iTunes will begin offering higher-quality, DRM-free music and DRM-free music videos to all customers."

10 of 410 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Competition for emusic by vakuona · · Score: 4, Funny

    But smaller publishers might also price their music lower. Isn't it conventional slashdot wisdom that they are less greedy than the average big four label?

  2. Re:Redundant? by evilbessie · · Score: 2, Funny

    But but but, DRM is an "Enabling Tool"...

  3. Wait a minute by Richard+McBeef · · Score: 5, Funny

    How am I supposed to manage my digital rights now?

  4. Re:How DRM-less? by crayz · · Score: 2, Funny

    You get DRM-free audio encoded in a non-proprietary format, what do you think?

  5. Jobs and Apple are still EVIL by Infonaut · · Score: 5, Funny

    To sum up the list of objections to this move by Apple:

    • Apple is still not offering something for nothing, which pisses me off.
    • This is just a big PR stunt. Apple isn't really doing this for the right reasons, so it's still wrong.
    • This should have been done a long time ago, so the fact that they're doing it now makes it evil.
    • Apple is just trying to make their EVIL, proprietary AAC (Apple Audio Compression) dominate the free, open, wonderful MP3 format!
    • I don't like iTunes, therefore this move toward the elimination of DRM in music doesn't help me. This is Apple's fault. They're evil.
    • Steve Jobs wears sweaters. I hate sweaters. Sweaters are evil. Therefore, Jobs is evil, and so is Apple.
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    Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
    1. Re:Jobs and Apple are still EVIL by QuantumG · · Score: 4, Funny

      He wears turtleneck sweaters ok? If that aint Dr Fuckin' Evil, I don't know what is.

      --
      How we know is more important than what we know.
  6. Re:Competition for emusic by e.+boaz · · Score: 2, Funny

    It's now significantly more expensive to buy music from Apple compared to Wal-mart.


    Except that you don't have to burn fossil fuels to get your music to your house. Nor is there any fossil fuel expended in transporting the disk to the store. Nor do you have to listen to the limited previews through headphones used by 90% of the people in your area. You can shop naked if you wish.

    Yes, this is an improvement.
  7. Re:Competition for emusic by oyenstikker · · Score: 2, Funny

    Yup. If Apple didn't have iTMS, they would still have all the hardware sitting there turned on, doing nothing.

    --
    The masses are the crack whores of religion.
  8. Re:Perfect quality! by QuantumG · · Score: 5, Funny

    $3? $3?!!

    For $3 per song I want the band to come play live in my drinking establishment.

    $3.

    --
    How we know is more important than what we know.
  9. Re:Competition for emusic by StikyPad · · Score: 5, Funny

    calling it progress to pay extra for the lack of something is quite bizarre.

    Not when you can have soup for $1, or bodily-fluid free soup for $5.

    --
    https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere