EMI May Remove DRM From Parts of Catalog

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.

Don't count on others following suit.

[HugePedlar]

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.

Re:Risky

[cyclop]

Yes but CDs become digital files so easily and so often today that the division between the two realms is pretty much senseless.

Go Buy!!

[Martian of Death]

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.

Re:If this is true....

[Whiney Mac Fanboy]

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....

Re:Will it play on iPod and Rio?

[MadJo]

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:If this is true....

[Dogtanian]

If it is true (and let's all hope so), 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 notice that you're not sure enough about this to "man up", stand by your assertion for posterity and at least log in to say this.

By the way, "man up" is one hell of a stupid phrase, of the type spouted duckspeak-style by morons who base their definition of manhood on stupid, pseudo-macho, group-approved, adolescent language. The same type of people who'll buy any old crap if enough money is spent advertising it with a "macho" image. You're not men, you're insecure, immature and easily-influenced little boys.

Anyway, "man up" actually sounds pretty gay when you think about it; ironic when you consider that such adolescent pseudo-men are the most likely to spout such crap *and* be the most homophobic.

Open

[simpl3x]

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.

Re:Will you go back and eat your words?

[daveschroeder]

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:The catch...

[gsslay]

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!