Apple, EMI lift DRM; still no Beatles on iTunes

Computing giant Apple announced today its iTunes digital storefront will begin selling EMI Music's digital catalog in an upgraded format free of digital rights management restrictions. Beginning in May, iTunes will offer DRM-free EMI content at a higher-quality 256 kbps AAC encoding--each track will cost $1.29, as opposed to the 99 cents Apple charges for downloads with DRM and 128 kbps AAC encoding. Apple will also enable subscribers to upgrade their existing libraries of EMI content to the improved DRM-free versions for 30 cents per song.

"We are going to give iTunes customers a choice--the current versions of our songs for the same 99 cent price, or new DRM-free versions of the same songs with even higher audio quality and the security of interoperability for just 30 cents more," said Apple CEO Steve Jobs in a prepared statement. "We think our customers are going to love this, and we expect to offer more than half of the songs on iTunes in DRM-free versions by the end of this year."

Apple's turn from DRM to interoperability follows a January ruling by Norway's consumer ombudsman Bjoern Erik Thon that found iTunes illegal because it restricts downloaded content from playback on rival devices. Thon said Apple must open iTunes access by October 1, or else Norwegian courts would begin imposing fines. Consumer rights organizations in Germany, France, Sweden and Finland also announced reviews of iTunes policies.

In response, Jobs posted an essay on the Apple website calling for the record industry to allow DRM-free online music sales, arguing that attaching DRM restrictions to digital content has only limited the market's growth. Eliminating DRM safeguards is "clearly the best alternative for consumers, and Apple would embrace it in a heartbeat," Jobs wrote.

A number of media outlets reported that today's Apple/EMI press conference would announce an agreement making the Beatles' catalog available for digital sale. Those rumors turned out to be as false as the "Paul Is Dead" conjecture.  

For more on the Apple/EMI deal:
- read this release

Related article:
- Apple announces iPhone