It’s official: DRM-free music now on sale at iTunes Plus

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Wednesday, 30 May 2007 23:49

Opinion and Analysis

Arriving at almost the 11th hour to squeeze into the promised May deadline, Apple’s iTunes Plus 7.2 delivers EMI’s collection of DRM-free tracks to a worldwide audience, with Jobs saying more to come!

Ever since Apple and EMI announced their groundbreaking agreement to sell EMI’s entire digital collection through Apple’s iTunes without the restrictions of DRM, in a higher quality format than DRM protected tracks, in late May, the tension has built as the end of May drew perilously nearer with nary a DRM-free track from Apple in sight.

But today, the 30th of May, has seen Apple and EMI fulfill their promise, with Apple unleashing iTunes Plus version 7.2 onto the world, and bringing with it, EMI’s entire digital collection in DRM-free format.

Apple explains that DRM-free tracks are “without limitations on the type of music player or number of computers that purchased songs can be played on”, meaning DRM-free EMI songs purchased from iTunes can be played back on any mp3/digital music player that support’s the AAC codec, an alternative to MP3 and WMA that’s widely supported by most players on the market, meaning Apple is actively selling to owners of non-iPod mp3 players for the first time.

Apple’s statement manages to mention the iPhone as well and explains that “iTunes Plus songs purchased from the iTunes Store will play on all iPods, Mac or Windows computers, widescreen TVs with Apple TV and soon iPhones, as well as many other digital music players”.

As previously detailed, DRM-free tracks cost US $1.29 each and are encoded at a higher quality bitrate of 256kbps, or a 30c premium to DRM-protected tracks which are only encoded at 128kbps. iTunes can also automatically upgrade your existing EMI tracks to higher quality DRM-free versions for 30c extra per song if desired, or $3.00 for most albums.

CEO Steve Jobs said that “Our customers are very excited about the freedom and amazing sound quality of iTunes Plus. We expect more than half of the songs on iTunes will be offered in iTunes Plus versions by the end of this year”, meaning Apple’s quest to convert more of the major labels to their new DRM-free way of thinking, at least for music, continues apace with clearly good prospects for success.

But for the already converted Eric Nicoli, the CEO of EMI Group, the dawn of a partially DRM-free world has broken, with EMI no doubt holding high hopes that the move is wildly popular with users, dramatically increasing the number of tracks and albums purchased. Nicoli said that “This is a tremendous milestone for digital music. Consumers are going to love listening to higher quality iTunes Plus tracks from their favorite EMI artists with no usage restrictions.”

In Apple’s statement, linked near the top of this story, a very partial selection of EMI artists past and present shows the enduring popularity of their artists, promising you’ll find singles and albums from Coldplay, The Rolling Stones, Norah Jones, Frank Sinatra, Joss Stone, Pink Floyd, John Coltrane, along with over a dozen of Paul McCartney’s classic albums which are being made “available on iTunes for the first time”.

So, although the iTunes Store has sold over 2.5 billion songs, if Apple has its way and the age of DRM-free transforms the digital media landscape, song sales could increase as Apple leads the DRM-free charge with the coolest music download and sync software.

Who knows? One day iTunes might sync to anything. Hell would probably have to freeze over first, but remember – in the world of Apple, Hell did that very thing during one of Steve Jobs’ keynote speeches a few years ago and popped out iTunes for Windows XP.

While there are certainly no public plans for iTunes to sync to anything beyond a range of  Apple products, the future’s a strange, wonderful and unpredictable place where anything can happen!