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EMI May Remove DRM From Parts of Catalog

Posted by Zonk on Mon Apr 02, 2007 07:29 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.
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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.
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EMI May Remove DRM From Parts of Catalog 25 Comments More /

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

    by freedom_india (780002) on Monday April 02 2007, @07:36AM (#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, @07:44AM (#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.

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

      by Corporate Troll (537873) on Monday April 02 2007, @07:50AM (#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, @07:37AM (#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.

  • Go Buy!! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Martian of Death (1081485) on Monday April 02 2007, @07:49AM (#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, @07:53AM (#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.
  • 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.
      • 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.

  • Confirmed! (Score:5, Informative)

    by datafr0g (831498) * <datafrog@gmCHEETAHail.com minus cat> on Monday April 02 2007, @08:21AM (#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]
  • 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.
  • .. could you send me a copy to try ;-)

    • 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.

    • Not a joke (Score:4, Informative)

      by daveschroeder (516195) * <(das) (at) (doit.wisc.edu)> on Monday April 02 2007, @08:06AM (#18571921) Homepage
      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, @08:30AM (#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, @09:08AM (#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!

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