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

EMI Music launches DRM-free superior sound quality downloads across its entire digital repertoire

EMI Group CEO Eric Nicoli today hosted a press conference at EMI’s headquarters in London where he announced that EMI Music is launching DRM-free superior quality downloads across its entire digital repertoire and that Apple’s iTunes Store will be the first online music store to sell EMI’s new downloads. Nicoli was joined by Apple CEO Steve Jobs. The event also featured a musical performance by The Good, The Bad & The Queen

Great news!
Hopefully this will help the process of making DRM redundant.

Wow. That’s cool news. I think especially for RIAA and Microsoft as well. It seems one more standard has just started to finish its days…

Well, I guess it’s a good first step. But since most of what I listen to is at http://emusic.com, I’ll stay with their service since I get completely legit DRM-free high quality audio for something closer to $.30 per song. I just can’t justify spending an extra $1/song to buy the kind of audio I should have been getting all along.

Never thought I’d say this, but.. I think I’ll pay $2 a track for that (the cost here in the UK). It’s worth it to validate the non-DRM model. Perhaps prices will start to drop once it picks up.

So… drm-less songs for MORE money? Considering that removing the overhead of DRM (maintenance, upgrades, security, etc.) should reduce the cost, not raise it.

Similar to ATM machines.

Allen - I’m just glad we’re finally getting rid of DRM. We can work on the pricing next.

Its a first step in totally abolishing DRM.
Hallelujah!

What will be very interesting is if beyond the big labels if Apple and iTunes makes it easy for smaller, independent labels to make their content available via iTunes DRM free as well (and if they also insist on selling at the new, higher per-track prices)

If so, and customers agree to that new price point, then Apple may have both made a major step forward in getting rid of DRM and in getting an ~30% raise in the per-track price (not clear if it is 30 cents here in US or if it will be more) - depending on how this additional money is split, it may also help many parties with greater revenues from digital distribution.

As a consumer with many diverse devices (not to mention virtual machines running inside of other systems), I welcome the new capability (potentially at least) to avoid DRM on tracks I chose to buy online.

I’d say this is one major nail in the coffin for the CD as well - as DRM free digital files (especially higher quality ones) makes me even more comfortable getting music as a download - as I know I can move it to future devices (whereas I have previously often preferred a CD for the futureproofing, as well as the control over the quality when I rip it).

Shannon

Obviously this wont make everyone happy. But all in all, I think this is good and encouraging news. Getting rid of DRM, it’s on the right track. Wondering whats next… The music industry really needs some reorganization.
Business and Investment

Good news. They/we have to start somewhere, and simply getting DRM free music on the map in a wide scale is good news. Like Mike said, the pricing/value can be tweaked going forward.

I’m just glad their finally appears to be a crack in the dam.

April 2nd 2007 the day DRM died

Ive been hearing from a few content distributio executives I know that this day was coming I just didnt know it would be announced this soon .

I predicted August 2007 and I suppose that will be the case wien all the other content services set up thier own DRM free deals .

People will no longer have any real argument to using bittorent or allofmp3 based on DRM alone. I expect this to have a significant upwards impact on sales.

I know I will be purchasing more… now that I get the value I expect.

Today is a beautiful day. 50% of all music on the itunes store will be DRM free by the end of 2007? You know S. Jobs has this statistic almost guaranteed in order for him to announce it. I agree Mike, we’ll get the pricing perfect later.

-JLB

Is anyone else annoyed that this has be announced as some partnerhip with iTunes?

EMI could have done this without Apple’s support.

EMI decided to go in slowly rather than throw away DRM completely. I like the fact that they’re trying to add value with higher sound quality. Let’s just hope that the higher price won’t hurt the sales of DRM-free content.

Michael - the only thing that annoys me is that I had to get up at 5 am to listen to this webcast.

No, I’m not annoyed at all. In order for this to gain traction, it needs to have the strongest partner in the game. Apple is the leader in digital music sales, along with portable MP3 players. Yeah, let’s have EMI do this alone, or better yet, with Napster… which would have made it DOA. Just my two cents.

-JLB

Yep Mike #13 - it will - 30 cents more per song.

Here is me with my accountant hat.

1. Many people who have ipods have no idea what DRM is. They just want their music - they will believe that the boost in quality is worth 30 cents more.

2. you can already burn itunes songs to a cd for your car. What is the real purpose for buying this?

3. who else plays aac format (i actually have no idea)

4. If I use the atm machine as my example, it was supposed to make things easier and better and there would never be a fee since we were “helping” banks. Yet now, use an atm not your own and pay up to $5 fee.

I saw your smiley Mike and I hope that the price will come down to 99c, but I doubt it. What would be the benefit?

Here is my prediction. 1/1/2008 - DRM’ed songs on iTunes are gone and the only option is the $1.29 drm free song.

Allen - let me rephrase - no “ethical” argument. In past debates about AllOfMP3 here, a lot of people have defended it because it was DRM free, saying it wasn’t about the price of music, just the DRM.

Allen - I actually think that a subtle but also important element here is that there is now a much clearer advantage to buying an album digitally, whereas previously it was only for the occasional “long” track that iTunes for some reason refused to sell individually (and to a lesser degree for other “bonuses” etc).

Now there is a price and quality incentive directly as well.

(and remember that just days ago Apple also announced that if you have bought individual tracks, you can buy the whole album at a discount)

Both seem very reasonable (and non-restrictive) moves on the part of the industry to try to woo buyers back to buying whole albums. (of course whether artists/bands will make albums worth buying is another matter).

I don’t currently buy a lot of music (never have - either in CD’s or digitally), still have lots still unlistened to from cd’s, but I do think as a business that the race towards negligible prices per track was not good - even from a fan’s perspective. For one, it means that as a fan just buying the song (or the whole album even) mostly only supports credit card companies and other service providers with next to nothing going to the band. However at a price of $1.30 though still not all that much, there starts to be more money split all around, and perhaps a stronger signal to the bands (and their business partners such as labels) from the actions of individual fans.

Shannon

A lot depends on how Apple is going to build this into the interface of the iTunes store. I stopped buying CDs because I didn’t want to have to check the back of every case to see if it was copyprotection mutilated. I’m not gonna do the same in iTunes. Having to pay a few cents more (for a while) is the only hoop I’m prepared to jump through.

good point #22 shannon

here is another thing to think about….
Buying a cd, I can purchase anywhere I want. These “legal” drm free songs are only offered from iTunes forcing me to purchase from Apple?

Put these drm free songs on multiple networks and maybe we will see a price drop. Otherwise if apple is the only provider, my statement still stands.

It’s good to hear that DRM is dead at last.

I’m just wondering if this would be a bad thing for Apple, since you can now put these songs on any mp3 player, and not just the iPod. Any ideas?

Mike - you can go back to bed - I will wake you when Google buys DoubleClick.

thanks Allen. night.

Allen,

This isn’t an Apple exclusive. The press release states that they hope to do similar deals with the other services in the coming weeks.

Thanks Stephen!

So the King has finally done it, congrats to everyone

This is great! ;

- I suspect them to be moving to .99 cents soon!

-Rbowles

The DRM is dropped so songs downloaded from iTunes can now be played on any player, does this means iPod will lose a competitive edge ?

Whats your take Allen

Please note that the price is still the SAME for albums, but you will get drm-free 256 bit encoded AAC tracks as of May.

This is also a push to help sell albums (which become even cheaper in comparison to individual drm-free tracks).

USD 1.29 x 12 songs = USD 15.46 as compared to an album price of USD 9.99.

GREAT NEWS. I’m glad it actually went down as we had suspected from the early news.

Rex

Bilal, I don’t think it’s any player. It’s “any device that plays AAC format.”

The higher price could also be because they want to make up for the losses from people who start sharing these new, cool, drm-free, tracks on the populair p2p’s..

However, even though I can legally download anything I want legally from anywhere (dutch laws) I’ll be installing some type of converter software that does AAC to MP3 or OGG and download my DRM-FREE songs from the iTunes store from here-on. This is a great great move forward in a world without DRM of any kind and everyone should embrace it.. it’s only the beginning, if we show that this does increase the track sales the other 3 are bound to come across as well.

@24 Done.
from the press release: “EMI is introducing a new wholesale price for premium single track downloads, while maintaining the existing wholesale price for complete albums. EMI expects that consumers will be able to purchase higher quality DRM-free downloads from a variety of digital music stores within the coming weeks, with each retailer choosing whether to sell downloads in AAC, WMA, MP3 or other unprotected formats of their choice.”

Great news today!

1.) This blows a huge hole in Norway’s ‘consumer protection’ case. I imagine they would now find it difficult to argue that Apple is responsible for the DRM-lock-in imposed on iPod users via the iTunes Store. It can now be argued that the remaining record companies Sony, BMG, etc. are imposing the lock-in on the consumer.

2.) What’s today’s announcement going to do pricing of tunes ? Current DRM-protected tunes from ITMS cost US$1.55. In the US, that same file costsUS$ 0.99. Without the geographic-protection provided by DRM, will we see a levelling of prices across geographic areas ?

I’m in the Music distribution, and by default than in the DRM, business and I hope we can start seeing innovative concepts based on major label content soon ….

cheers,

If this is the case, they will have to make Nano’s that hold more than just 4GB.

The price I mentioned in my previous comment was the price that British customer pay at the ITMS, i.e. £0.99 == US$1.55 / track.

The geographic-protection isn’t provided by DRM. This is simply specified in the meta data that the label provides sites like the one I work for. Apple, for example, blocks purchase on a credit card level as far as I am aware (eg. with a US credit card you can only buy from the US iTunes store).

I think Michael is spot on when he writes: “I’m just glad we’re finally getting rid of DRM. We can work on the pricing next”. One battle at a time.

Way to go, EMI, smart move, Steve (as usual). Now we can bundle and package music with convergent media. Now it will play for sure sure sure. People will abandon the ’secure’ format quicker than you can track it. Everybody will have to follow suit. UMG will be next. soon, is my hunch. And the prices for the consumers will drop drop drop - since they will be cross-promoted with ads and sponsorships. Finally, the dam has opened for sure. Read more at more blog above or at http://www.musiclikewater.net

This is BAD NEWS for those here fighting against DRM. I wrote here why, but it’s basicly because they’re turning user RIGHTS into EXTRAS, something you pay more to have. Well, to EMI and Apple I keep giving the finger.

They should have made it 30 cents cheaper to give a big “wake the f*** up” to the rest of the music industry.

Still, well done.

BOOOOOOOOOO.

LAME.

So now a CD’s worth of digital tracks, without the cost of the case, CD, paper insert, and land-based distribution network… is $19.50.

F THAT.

Merankoorii you have a point there but it is only step 1 — and the only one they can take now. Price is next - and plenty consumer brands will be willing to subsidize music; meaning the labels and artists will get paid regardless of end-user prices for ‘the people formerly know as consumers’

It’s a bold move and I believe the pricing is pretty reasonable and justified.

First of all the quality of the downloaded music will be much higher. Traditionally prices have always risen when there’s a move to a new format with better sound quality… which this new offering will provide. Also the costs of storage and bandwidth increase providing 256k music files.

They didn’t make the argument in the conference call, however, they are obviously assuming far greater risks by putting their entire catalog of music out there in a high quality DRM-free format. But it appears EMI have finally understood to win customers back they need a great product, ease-of-use, and stop treating all their consumers like thieves. (something Eric alluded to in the conference call)

This is a giant leap in the right direction for music lovers.

Jeff number 46

DRM free albums will cost the same $9.99, not 19.50, as an incentive for people to buy digital albums to offset the falling physical numbers.

Im quite frankly amazed that people are picking this thing apart. Its not perfect, but a big step forward for the industry.

I’m sorry Gerd and Jamie, but I can’t agree with you. See, as has been reported several times, CD’s are selling less, digital music is selling more. A report (I don’t know which one now, if you want ask me and I’ll look out for the link) says that in ten years or so you’re going to have digital music as the “standard” way of people purchasing music (more than 50%). Now, what moves like this are making is turning the “usual digital music buy” to be a DRMd file, and to have the “all the rights you really have on music” files (non-DRM ones) as (using EMI’s words) “premium content”. This act tries to (1) make DRM and non-DRM files cohexist (legitimizing DRM) and (2) turns your rights into “extras” that you have to ponder if you really want to pay more for, in each buy you do. At the end, you’ll have “DRM as default” in all the music industry, which is what we are fighting against, from the start.

As for me, I’ll keep boycotting Apple and EMI until they stop f*cking around with their costumers.