Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments
Search

News for nerds, stuff that matters

Slashdot Log In

Log In

Create Account  |  Retrieve Password

EMI May Remove DRM From Parts of Catalog

Posted by Zonk on Mon Apr 02, 2007 06:29 AM
from the almost-too-good-to-be-true dept.
Encryption Security Businesses Media Music The Internet
An anonymous reader writes "Ars Technica is reporting that EMI may announce on Monday that it will be freeing much of its catalog from the shackles of DRM. The Wall Street Journal, in a subscription-only portion of its site, is saying that that Apple CEO Steve Jobs will be present at the announcement in London and that the music will be sold through the iTunes Store and possibly other online outlets. In early February rumblings were heard that EMI was thinking about ditching DRM, but EMI was unable to entice the likes of Apple, Microsoft, and others. As it turned out, EMI wanted a considerable advance payment to offset what it perceived as a risk: selling DRM-free music online. EMI's position was simple: if they sell music without DRM, then users will find trading it that much easier." There's also rumours of an Apple/Beatles announcement sometime today, perhaps tied into this drm decision.
+ -
story

Related Stories

[+] News: Jobs Favors DRM-Free Music Distribution 755 comments
Another anonymous reader tips an essay by Steve Jobs on the Apple site about DRM, iTunes, and the iPod. Perhaps it was prompted by the uncomfortable pressure the EU has been putting on Apple to open up the iPod. Jobs places the blame for the existence and continuing reliance on DRM squarely on the music companies. Quoting: "Much of the concern over DRM systems has arisen in European countries. Perhaps those unhappy with the current situation should redirect their energies towards persuading the music companies to sell their music DRM-free. For Europeans, two and a half of the big four music companies are located right in their backyard. The largest, Universal, is 100% owned by Vivendi, a French company. EMI is a British company, and Sony BMG is 50% owned by Bertelsmann, a German company. Convincing them to license their music to Apple and others DRM-free will create a truly interoperable music marketplace. Apple will embrace this wholeheartedly."
[+] News: Steve Jobs Announces (some) DRM-free iTunes 838 comments
Fjan11 writes "Steve Jobs just announced that starting next month on you can buy higher quality 256Kbps AAC encoded DRM-free versions of iTunes songs for $1.29. Upgrades to songs you've already bought will be available at the $0.30 price difference. Currently EMI is the only publisher participating, accounting for about 20% of the songs available." There's also reports from Reuters and ABC News. The deal excludes the Beatles. You can also read the official press release from Apple if you still think this a late joke; this story confirms earlier speculation.
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.

EMI May Remove DRM From Parts of Catalog 50 Comments More /

 Full
 Abbreviated
 Hidden
More
Loading... please wait.
  • If this is true....Let's hope disney/pixar content is next ;-)

    (and the 'encryption' tag is wrong - encryption involves three parties & drm only two)
    • In the case of DRM the third party is the friend (an actual person or just another device) whom I actually want to let "eavesdrop" and get the information. But the music industry is making sure no third party can "steal" from us, whether we like it or not.

    • Looks like it *is* true (Score:4, Informative)

      by Anonymous Brave Guy (457657) on Monday April 02 2007, @07:51AM (#18572267)

      As I write this, the BBC have a "breaking news" article that appears to confirm that EMI are dropping mandatory DRM [bbc.co.uk].

      Short version: you will be able to buy DRM-free files, which will cost you more, but will also be of higher quality. You will also be able to upgrade existing DRM'd music to the "premium" DRM-free format for a small fee.

      • Steve was lying about Apple's preference for no DRM to man up and apologize here in this thread.

        I said Jobs was hypocritical for arguing against DRM while Apple seems happy to dish DRM out to its customers.

        If it's not true, well, there's always another day.

        Judging by the fact that you're not willing to login, I'd say it's going to be another day....
        • (Restored partially parted quote)

          I expect dozens of Apple haters who have been claiming that Steve was lying about Apple's preference for no DRM to man up and apologize here in this thread.

          I said Jobs was hypocritical for arguing against DRM while Apple seems happy to dish DRM out to its customers.
          You said [slashdot.org]

          Am I mistaken that Jobs was enthusiastic about DRM in the early days?

            • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

              by Fahrenheit 450 (765492)
              Yes. Because becoming powerful enough to change something from the inside is always the wrong way to go.
              Jobs had next to zero leverage when they started the iTunes store, he couldn't get the labels to do spit. Now he's got a bit of flex, and with EMI in his corner he's helped to open up the market to DRM-free major label music downloads. How horrible of him...

              Of course, this won't mean anything if the consumers aren't willing to pay extra for their freedom or higher bitrate encodings.

  • Will it play on iPod and Rio? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by freedom_india (780002) on Monday April 02 2007, @06:36AM (#18571759) Homepage Journal
    All this removing DRM is fine, but if i download from iTunes, will i be able to drag-drop the same into a Rio?
    Or am i still locked into iTunes iPod combination?
    I own only an iPod, so i would not notice it even, but for some who own a Rio/some other music player, can i buy from iTunes, and then listen to it on Rio?
    If not, then iam moving from a closer jail to a bigger jail.

    • Re:Will it play on iPod and Rio? (Score:5, Informative)

      by Khakionion (544166) on Monday April 02 2007, @06:44AM (#18571819) Homepage
      "Or am i still locked into iTunes iPod combination?"

      DRM is what locks iTunes purchases to the iPod. If you buy non-DRM tracks, they will play on anything capable of reading that format. The iTunes Store sells AAC tracks, so chances are it will work with any modern music player.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by MadJo (674225)
        My modern iAudio U3 does not play AAC.
        But I can't run iTunes on my pc anyway (no linux client), so it doesn't matter much for me.
        • Yes, but now you can format-shift without technical hurdles and legal prohibitions.
        • Just when all doubted there would still be things for people like you to whine about, you've restored our faith in your ability to whine like a baby.

          Waaaahh! My MP3 player won't play AAC and there isn't iTunes for Linux (unless you use WINE). Waaaaaahh!

    • Re:Will it play on iPod and Rio? (Score:5, Informative)

      by Corporate Troll (537873) on Monday April 02 2007, @06:50AM (#18571849) Homepage Journal
      If your Rio supports m4a files (assuming the non DRM will be AAC) and presents itself as a disk drive to your operating system, then the answer is yes. Right now you can just select and drag songs in iTunes to any folder and it will simply copy the files. It even does this with protected files. It's a useful feature for backing up.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by jonbryce (703250)
      You may need to transcode it into a format the Rio supports, but without the DRM, that won't be a problem other than either a slight loss of quality or a much larger file size.

    • Open (Score:3, Insightful)

      by simpl3x (238301)
      As they've publicly announced, this will hopefully dispel all of the statements that Jobs was full of it and playing games with his opinion piece. Since I have never purchased anything from the iTMS, I have no copy protection. I've loaded files on a Nokia N880 and they play, so they should play on the Rio if AAC is supported.

      As you can export any of your non-DRM music from iTunes, any jail cell you inhabit is of your own making. Apparently, here on /. your not alone in that cell however.
    • The DRM free music will not just be for iTunes, so they won't just be in AAC. So all players benefit, just not from iTunes which will probably still sell in AAC.

      Read about it here:
      EMI's press release [emigroup.com]

      I wonder if indie labels will also be able to sell non-DRM'd tracks on iTunes now.

  • Don't count on others following suit. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by HugePedlar (900427) on Monday April 02 2007, @06:37AM (#18571771) Homepage
    EMI's share price has been plummeting for months. My guess is they're desperate to try anything. Hopefully the risk will pay off, but if the share price continues to fall, it won't look encouraging for other record companies. As of this morning they're only up half a percent.
  • Who thought they meant electromagnetic interference?
  • I'd consider paying for and downloading DRM-free music, but it sounds pretty risky to me. I know, CDs have no DRM, but we're talking about unprotected digital files here. I think I'm going to need a considerable downpayment to offset the risks, say in the order of a few million US dollars. Anyone else feel they need a downpayment before risking a download? Sounds like Apple's wallet's open.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by cyclop (780354)
      Yes but CDs become digital files so easily and so often today that the division between the two realms is pretty much senseless.
      • Ah... CDs are a collection of a specialized raw format of 44100Hz, 16 bit, stereo PCM file, with error correction built into the physical transport layer.

        They are a media for transporting digital information; not only is the separation senseless, it's imaginary. If you buy a CD, you've bought eight-to-fourteen digital files.

    • I'd consider paying for and downloading DRM-free music, but it sounds pretty risky to me.

      I have ready access to all the games I could want thanks to a friend I know who's a very big pirate. I also know about GameCopyWorld [gamecopyworld.com].

      However, I still buy games. I don't pirate them. (Then I use the stuff at GameCopyWorld to allow them to be played without the original CD, but that's because I have small kids all over the place and I keep those valuable archival media on a high shelf.) Similarly, I buy CDs and rip th

  • However, it sounds like they are still tentative. The dumb thing is, DRM does much more for Apple than it does for EMI. Basically, they've created a group of consumers who are locked into continuing to use Apple's Store. This increases Apple's power and bargaining position. If they were smart, they'd remove DRM ASAP, so consumers could eventually have choice about where to buy music.. which would make the stores compete for the business of EMI. Oh well, I think they're too blind to realize this, so the

    • Basically, they've created a group of consumers who are locked into continuing to use Apple's Store.

      Nah, it doesn't lock them into the store. There's nothing to stop iTS customers buying from elsewhere. It locks customers into buying Apple hardware (iPods), which is far more lucrative.

  • And MP3??? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    What about MP3, getting rid of the DRM makes it easier to put on my MP3 player but I'd still rather just buy the damn MP3 VBR format to start with.

    I have to say I'm suspicious, I just want to buy the music, I don't want to sign up to a store that may or may not have DRM'd music, I just want to buy a track and know it will be mp3 vbr, with no nasty surprises, and no complicated EULA, and no BITE ME IN THE ASS drm.

    Am I asking too much? I have money, real money with no EULA to sign before you take it, it is yo
    • It will very likely be in AAC format. This isn't bad, per se, as many mp3 players support AAC very well (though, they ALL support mp3).

      Also, AAC transcodes at very low loss to MP3, if you're using the right software.

  • Go Buy!! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Martian of Death (1081485) on Monday April 02 2007, @06:49AM (#18571845)
    If they do announce this, I will go to the iTunes store and buy $50 worth of EMI music this evening. The only way other companies will follow suit is if Apple is telling them that EMI is selling more songs after DRM is removed.

  • I Call April Fools (Score:3, Funny)

    by Shihar (153932) on Monday April 02 2007, @06:53AM (#18571855)
    The idea that Apple would sell non-DRMed music is laughable. DRM is what keeps the iTunes locked to iPods, and iPods locked to iTunes. It isn't like Apple has been begging other companies to let them strip the DRM from their products. On the contrary, indie labels that use iTunes have been begging Apple for years to let them sell their music DRM free and Apple has shown absolutely no interest in doing so.

    Personally, I call April Fools. The day Apple doesn't try and tie hardware, software, and content all together is the day hell freezes over. If Apple really wanted to strip DRM from some of their music, they would have already done so for the labels that are begging for it.
  • then I have no doubt that "parts of it's catalog" means they may be testing it on a few select artists that may or may not even be popular.

  • Will you go back and eat your words? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by daveschroeder (516195) * on Monday April 02 2007, @07:18AM (#18571993)
    To all the people who thought Jobs' statement was PR bullshit to deflect criticism and that it "never really intended" to remove any DRM from any of its tracks, will you now go back and eat your words [slashdot.org]?

    All the folks who erroneously expected/thought that Apple should have been able to do this in "2-3 days, tops" on a massive service and infrastructure like iTunes, will you now go back and eat your words?

    To all of the people who think Apple can just "flip a switch" for indies, utterly ignoring the fact that there may be other binding legal or contract obligations that need to be ironed out, will you now go back and eat your words?

    For the people who ignorantly don't realize that there is a massive support operation behind iTunes, and Apple doesn't want to break things or confuse customers, and wanted to do it right, and wanted to force the labels' hands such that a big one would jump first, will you now go back and eat your words?

    I'm willing to wait at least for the official announcement, but since Reuters and the WSJ have already independently reported this, all you naysayers who kept on saying this was just a big PR conspiracy by Apple and they really were oh-so-in-love with DRM and iTunes/iPod lock-in that they'd never remove DRM, you're welcome to use this thread for your apologies.

    This, if all the reports really are true (and no, it isn't the result of an April Fool's joke for anyone who still thinks it is), represents the biggest shift in online media since online media itself: the biggest online store, actively willing to sell content without DRM, proving that Apple isn't interested in DRM and did only apply it because of studio demands.

    And then, pragmatically getting ALL of the major studios onboard into online sales, working in countless countries and jurisdictions with different legal systems, doing something that no other company had done before, and just biding its time and dropping the no-DRM bombshell in the form of Jobs' statement.

    I know people probably won't thank Apple for this, especially the folks who love to hate Apple. But for all of the people who ask "what Apple ever does", or "how do they innovate", here's yet another answer.

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by ady1 (873490)
      No but we can lick the monitor a bit.

      • Re:Will you go back and eat your words? (Score:5, Insightful)

        by daveschroeder (516195) * on Monday April 02 2007, @07:55AM (#18572317)
        Please direct me to the other major label music or media stores legally selling major label content online without DRM.

        Thanks!

        (Believe it or not, some people want major label content.)

        And the restrictions are there because they needed to be. Apple is now using its power and clout to slowly remove them, because DRM is worthless for all the reasons we already knew, including the reasons Jobs, in his statement, articulated. If EMI was teetering, Jobs statement pushed them over the edge.

        Like all things Apple does, no, they weren't "the first" and may not have "invented" said concept, but, as usual, they're the first to do it right, do it with tools (or content) people actually use, and do it en masse. Like it or not, this is huge, and just like all of the other things Apple didn't invent but actually took mass-market and made easy to use, like the mouse, the GUI, desktop publishing (LaserWriter), 802.11 (AirPort), a usable online music/media store (iTunes), etc. and so on, this will stand as a major shift in online media.

        No, Apple isn't some kind of savior. But give credit where credit's due.

        • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

          by swissfondue (819240)
          Michael Gartenberg [jupiterresearch.com] is giving the credit where it is due: "It is a good step forward for consumers but more importantly, it showed Apple at the forefront of acting as "champion" for consumer interests. After all, it wasn't Rob Glaser or Bill Gates up there with EMI. "

  • Confirmed! (Score:5, Informative)

    by datafr0g (831498) * <datafrog AT gmail DOT com> on Monday April 02 2007, @07:21AM (#18572005) Homepage
    On EMI's website....

    http://www.emigroup.com/Default.htm [emigroup.com]

    DRM-free downloads: EMI Music launches DRM-free superior sound quality downloads. From 1pm London time there will be a live audio webcast of this announcement.

    Press Release here: http://www.emigroup.com/Press/2007/press18.htm [emigroup.com]
    • Well, what I really want to know is how about stuff I have already bought??? And yes, I know there are unofficial ways but I would rather see an official method.
    • Sadly, these tracks are more expensive -- but they claim that they've increased the audio quality, so perhaps that's an acceptable trade-off. They're also allowing you to upgrade your existing purchases.

      Apple has announced that iTunes will make individual AAC format tracks available from EMI artists at twice the sound quality of existing downloads, with their DRM removed, at a price of $1.29/1.29/£0.99. iTunes will continue to offer consumers the ability to pay $0.99/0.99/£0.79 for standard sou

  • From the press release [emigroup.com]:

    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.
    ... therefore, not just parts of it.
  • So far, the only people I have bought MP3s from is allofmp3.com. The reason I don't buy it from anywhere else is DRM and fear that at some point, the system will stop me listening to it on some device or other.
    Most albums I listen to I already have on LP, CD, special edition CD and every other variant you tempt me with.
    If you remove the DRM, you can bet I'll start buying MP3s from your catalogue too. Hope that helps in your decision.

  • EMI's position was simple: if they sell music without DRM, then users will find [any verb] it that much easier.
    [any verb] = listening to, backing up, sampling, mixing, making a compilation including, etc. But don't forget buying.
  • .. could you send me a copy to try ;-)

  • 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). This is inline with the recent iTunes Store "upgrade to album" offer.

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

    So if I buy 8 songs from an album, it is cheaper to buy the album. This compares to 10 individual tracks from the same album under previous pricing.

    • Not a joke (Score:4, Informative)

      by daveschroeder (516195) * on Monday April 02 2007, @07:06AM (#18571921)
      Reuters [reuters.com] and the Wall Street Journal [wsj.com] are already reporting it.

      • Re:Not a joke (Score:5, Informative)

        by mykdavies (1369) on Monday April 02 2007, @07:30AM (#18572095)
        Hot off the EMI website:
        http://www.emigroup.com/Press/2007/press18.htm [emigroup.com]

        Apple has announced that iTunes will make individual AAC format tracks available from EMI artists at twice the sound quality of existing downloads, with their DRM removed, at a price of $1.29/1.29/£0.99. iTunes will continue to offer consumers the ability to pay $0.99/0.99/£0.79 for standard sound quality tracks with DRM still applied. Complete albums from EMI Music artists purchased on the iTunes Store will automatically be sold at the higher sound quality and DRM-free, with no change in the price. Consumers who have already purchased standard tracks or albums with DRM will be able to upgrade their digital music for $0.30/0.30/£0.20 per track. All EMI music videos will also be available on the iTunes Store DRM-free with no change in price.

    • Re:The catch... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by gsslay (807818) on Monday April 02 2007, @08:08AM (#18572413)
      Well thank goodness! With DRM (thankfully) dead, I was thinking for a moment there that people would have to start thinking up yet another excuse as to why pirating music was not only ok, but in fact a good thing.

      But here's a ready made one! Let the file sharing and self-serving moral posturing continue!

All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective owners. Comments are owned by the Poster. The Rest © 1997-2009 Geeknet, Inc.