The rumors were right. EMI and Apple are going to sell higher quality DRM free music through the iTunes Store. They will be "double the quality", so that should mean 256kbps AAC. Prices will be a little higher at $1.29/€1.29/£0.99 a track.
All albums on the store will be DRM free and at the higher bitrate, at no extra cost. Better still, if you have existing EMI tracks, you can upgrade for 30 cents a track.
Apple is the first to sell under this scheme but EMI plan to roll out the service to other online stores in other formats: AAC, WMA, MP3.
Steve Jobs: "Selling digital music DRM-free is the right step forward for the music industry. 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."
Eric Nicoli, CEO of EMI Group: "Our goal is to give consumers the best possible digital music experience. 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."
Press release [home.businesswire.com]
