EMI Remove DRM

In a move which changes the landscape for legal digital distribution of music, the world's third biggest record company EMI announced yesterday that it is making non-copy protected, high quality versions of it's music available via many online sites, including the iTunes store. "Premium" tracks encoded at 256kbps will retail at 99p (US $1.29), 20p more than the established 128kbps DRM-locked tracks, and will be freely transferable and playable on multiple devices. iTunes users will be able to upgrade previously purchased music for 20p (30c) per track.

"Consumers tell us they would be prepared to pay a higher price for a piece of music they can play on any player," said EMI boss Eric Nicoli. "We have to trust our consumers," he said. "We have always argued that the best way to combat illegal traffic is to make legal content available at decent value and convenient." Apple supremo Steve Jobs, who on February 6th wrote an "open letter" to the music industry appealing for DRM systems to be discarded, shared the platform with Mr Nicoli and said: "This is the next big step forward in the digital music revolution - the movement to completely interoperable DRM-free music."

He added: "The right thing to do is to tear down walls that precluded interoperability by going DRM-free and that starts here today."