Monday, April 02, 2007

EMI, Apple & Free Range MP3s

Thud. That's the sound of the first shoe dropping....


EMI Music Launches DRM-Free Superior Sound Quality Downloads Across Its Entire Digital Repertoire

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)----EMI Music today announced that it is launching new premium downloads for retail on a global basis, making all of its digital repertoire available at a much higher sound quality than existing downloads and free of digital rights management (DRM) restrictions.

The new higher quality DRM-free music will complement EMI's existing range of standard DRM-protected downloads already available. From today, EMI's retailers will be offered downloads of tracks and albums in the DRM-free audio format of their choice in a variety of bit rates up to CD quality. EMI is releasing the premium downloads in response to consumer demand for high fidelity digital music for use on home music systems, mobile phones and digital music players. EMI's new DRM-free products will enable full interoperability of digital music across all devices and platforms.




I've seen other stories saying that The Beatles catalog is *not* included in this intial release, but I'm sure as the story continues to develop today we will learn more.

I made a prediction a couple of months ago about "The Perfect Storm" involving Apple, EMI and The Beatles. I originally predicted this to all happen in February, but know I have a sneaking suspicion that the June 11th iPhone release date would make a great day to announce The Beatles catalog availability...

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