Monday, April 2, 2007

EMI goes DRM-free on iTunes Store

EMI goes DRM-free on iTunes Store: EMI has announced that the company has gone DRM-free with its entire music catalog on the iTunes Store, and has bumped the sound quality of its files.

This will be an interesting experiment. Their use of AAC can be justified on technical grounds, but it also reduces the attractiveness of unauthorized copying in a mostly MP3 environment.

For me, the relatively low bit rate and the hassles with authorizing and deauthorizing computers when I replace them have been deterrents to buying more from iTMS. This could change if higher-quality DRM-free tracks and albums became available for artists I care about — mostly not from EMI, though.

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