News from the Music Industry

The Apple iTunes Music store will sell the unprotected AAC-encoded tracks at double the existing bitrate, or about 256 kilobits per second, for $1.29/€1.29/£0.99. Albums sold will automatically be upgraded to the higher bitrate for the same price, Apple said. If a customer wishes to upgrade his existing EMI music to the higher-bitrate/DRM free version, he will pay $0.30/€0.30/£0.20 per track.

All EMI music videos will be sold without DRM, Apple said.

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The move follows trials where EMI released unprotected tracks into the marketplace. Executives said the decision was based upon market demand. Apple chief executive Steve Jobs, meanwhile, had publicly called upon labels to release their music without DRM restrictions.

“Selling digital music DRM-free is the right step forward for the music industry,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s chief executive, in a statement. “EMI has been a great partner for iTunes and is once again leading the industry as the first major music company to offer its entire digital catalogue DRM-free.”

EMI executives said they now agreed with Jobs’ stance.

“Our goal is to give consumers the best possible digital music experience,” said Eric Nicoli, chief executive of the EMI Group, in a statement. “By providing DRM-free downloads, we aim to address the lack of interoperability which is frustrating for many music fans. We believe that offering consumers the opportunity to buy higher quality tracks and listen to them on the device or platform of their choice will boost sales of digital music.”

A Scandinavian watchdog group also welcomed the move.