Tuesday, April 03, 2007

EMI ditches DRM

Back in February, Steve Jobs issued an open letter inviting the music industry to consider lifting their requirements for music to be DRM protected.

Yesterday, EMI and Apple announced that all EMI music will be sold DRM-free through iTunes from May. There’s a slight premium for unlocked content – an extra 20p (30¢) on top of the normal 79p (99¢), but with the bonus of 256kpbs (over the normal 128kbps).

And soon, EMI music videos will be sold unprotected through iTunes at the normal price. But who ever buys music videos?

Will the other big three labels follow EMI? And will the small premium compensate for the increase in piracy? Will there even be an increase in piracy of the unprotected tracks?

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