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Apple Debuts iTunes Plus: Bye-Bye DRM
Thanks to its recent deal with big music publisher EMI, iPod owners will
now be able to download music without the dreaded DRM (Digital Rights
Management) copyright protection software. Of course, there will be a price to
pay in the shape of a 20p bump in price to 99p per download.
This is not so bad though since the DRM-free 
tracks are double the
quality of regular iTunes downloads. Tracks are encoded at 256kbps, versus the
usual 128kbps. In addition, iTunes users can upgrade any previously downloaded
EMI tracks or albums to the higher quality versions [20p per track or
around £2 per album] with a single mouse-click.
“Our customers are very excited about the freedom and amazing sound
quality of iTunes Plus”, said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We expect more than
half of the songs on iTunes will be offered in iTunes Plus versions by the end
of this year”.
Eric Nicoli, CEO of EMI Group, commented: “This is a tremendous
milestone for digital music, Consumers are
going to love listening to higher quality iTunes Plus tracks from their
favourite EMI artists with no usage restrictions”.
Unfortunately, Apple does embed your personal account information to the track.
Posted by: Steve S | May 31, 2007 9:39 PM
http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/reviews/index.cfm?reviewid=1193
Posted by: Whydidyoukillsuchagreatblog | September 10, 2007 1:58 PM