EMI is DRM-free

[Hae-Yu]

This morning, EMI announced (http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/31437/97/) that it would license its music for download without any DRM protection. The deal with Apple, allows iTunes to sell DRM-free AAC music at bitrates up to CD quality for $1.29. Those who've purchased previous DRM'd versions can upgrade for 0.30. EMI will also be releasing DRM-free music videos as well. This deal is not exclusively with Apple though, and other retailers will license songs in a variety of protection-free formats to include mp3 and wma. Subscription services will still use some form of protection due to the business model.

NY Times Story (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/03/technology/03music.web.html)

[Nebula]

yeah fuck M4p's man...

I was highly disappointed to find out I BOUGHT a song off of itunes and tried to 'share' it with my girlfriend and she wasnt 'authorized' to play it. I cant even play the file in winamp. I'm not very happy about this.

but perhaps this will be a nice change of events..

[ioScream]

be creative and you can rip it.. i've done it before.

as far as DRM's go.. it's a waste of money.. i'm glad to hear they are getting rid of it.. i mean, you piss people off enough they'll just go download the song elsewhere.. for free.

[Hae-Yu]

I've actually never bought a digital download before - musicwise. The DRM, the lousy bitrates, and the proprietary formats are turnoffs. iTunes just eliminated the first 2 but they still use AAC which isn't exactly widely supported. Even then other stores have all 3 - in MP3 - and I still haven't bought yet.

Almost all of my library is ripped from CDs.