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Steve Jobs Announces (some) DRM-free iTunes

Posted by Hemos on Mon Apr 02, 2007 09:47 AM
from the about-time dept.
Music Portables (Apple) Apple
Fjan11 writes "Steve Jobs just announced that starting next month on you can buy higher quality 256Kbps AAC encoded DRM-free versions of iTunes songs for $1.29. Upgrades to songs you've already bought will be available at the $0.30 price difference. Currently EMI is the only publisher participating, accounting for about 20% of the songs available." There's also reports from Reuters and ABC News. The deal excludes the Beatles. You can also read the official press release from Apple if you still think this a late joke; this story confirms earlier speculation.

Related Stories

[+] IT: EMI May Remove DRM From Parts of Catalog 161 comments
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.
[+] Your Rights Online: Microsoft Set to Unlock EMI Songs, Too 171 comments
linumax writes "Microsoft has stated that it may be close to reaching a deal with EMI to sell songs without anti-piracy protection via the Zune platform. This, from comments made by head of marketing for Zune Jason Reindorp. They come hard on the heels of EMI's announcement that a deal with Apple to sell songs without DRM protection through the iTunes Music Store has been struck. Mr Reindorp said: 'We've been saying for a while that we are aware that consumers want to have unprotected content. This does open things up a little bit. It potentially makes the competition more of a device-to-device or service-to-service basis, and will force the various services to really innovate.'"
[+] Jobs Says People Don't Want to 'Rent' Music 203 comments
eldavojohn writes "PhysOrg is running a piece on a recent speech by Apple CEO Steve Jobs about DRM free music. While we know that Jobs is a self proclaimed proponent of DRM free music who's not all talk, he's now said that 'by the end of this year, over half of the songs we offer on iTunes we believe will be in DRM-free versions. I think we're going to achieve that.' Jobs pointed out what's obvious to us, the consumers, but isn't obvious to the music industry — 'People want to own their music.' He also dismissed subscription based music as a failure, and claimed a lot of other music labels are intrigued by the EMI deal."
[+] Apple To Grant All Labels DRM-Free Distribution 410 comments
SexCaptain writes "MacRumors.com reveals a letter circulated by Apple to all producers of content for the iTunes Store, announcing that from May onward they can sell their music at higher quality and free of DRM. Hopefully this opens the doors for labels like Netwerk. This is a big step in the right direction, although it's unclear exactly what Apple means by 'higher quality,' and there is no mention of price changes. (Apple charges $0.30 more per song for DRM-free content from EMI and encodes it at 256K.) Quoting from the letter: 'Many of you have reached out to iTunes to find out how you can make your songs available higher quality and DRM-free," Apple wrote in the communication. "Starting next month, iTunes will begin offering higher-quality, DRM-free music and DRM-free music videos to all customers."
[+] Jobs to Labels- Lose the DRM & We'll Talk Price 459 comments
eldavojohn writes "Apple CEO Steve Jobs has been talking smack about DRM and has recently issued a verbal offer to major music lables stating that if they are willing to lose the DRM, he'd be willing to raise his 99 cent price for those iTunes songs. These tracks (such as the recent EMI deal) would also have better sound quality & cost about 30 cents more."
[+] Your Rights Online: Anti-DRM Activists Take On the BBC 200 comments
An anonymous reader writes "Activists from Binary Freedom Boston have launched a campaign calling on the BBC to release their content online without DRM or proprietary formats. You might remember the BBC asking us about this earlier and even though the public chose not to use DRM by a landslide, they still decided to use it. EMI and Amazon have already ditched DRM. How long before the BBC does?"
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  • Good job everyone! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by AchiIIe (974900) on Monday April 02 2007, @09:49AM (#18572847)
    If you were one of the thousands of bloggers/netcitizens demanding DRM free music, give yourself a hand. This is a win for us.

    • Re:Good job everyone! (Score:5, Insightful)

      by goombah99 (560566) on Monday April 02 2007, @10:03AM (#18573033)
      It's not a win unless you reward them with your custom. Better buy now.
      [ Parent ]

      • Re:Good job everyone! (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Admiral Ag (829695) on Monday April 02 2007, @10:14AM (#18573211)
        The real winner here is Apple, and the potential big loser is Microsoft. This may well kill Windows Media as a digital audio format.

        Think about it... If all the labels offer their music DRM free by the end of the year, then what incentive is there for any online music store, except for the Zune store, to offer music in Windows Media format, given that the iPod is incompatible with WMA and represents about 80% of the target market.

        There simply isn't any reason for an online music store that isn't owned by Microsoft to offer downloads that are incompatible with around about 80% of the devices that people own.

        More to the point. Microsoft is only offering the Zune as a means of pushing its own audio format. Yet even Zune customers will be now able to play DRM free tracks from the iTMS. Microsoft has just caught up to the idea that you have to have a closed system to succeed (which was never the case, as Jobs' said in his letter a couple of months back), and now they will have to go home and think again.

        Steve Jobs has just succeeded in the first step of completely destroying Microsoft's music strategy, and no-one seems to have noticed. He must be chuckling to himself.
        [ Parent ]

          • Re:Good job everyone! (Score:5, Funny)

            by Admiral Ag (829695) on Monday April 02 2007, @10:34AM (#18573545)
            Yes, but I recall EMI saying that other companies would be selling DRM free music from EMI's catalogue, not just Apple.

            It makes no sense to offer those downloads in WMA format. Why lock out 80% of the user base? If I was an online music retailer, I would sell mp3s. Apple doesn't care about AAC the way that Microsoft cares about WMA. WMA is Microsoft's attempt to control digital music the way they control operating systems. AAC is the format Apple used so that they could have the DRM that the labels wanted.

            Today's announcement if the other labels go for it means that they have failed!!! failed!!!! FAILED!!!!!!! ...at this very moment chairs are being lifted into orbit from Redmond.
            [ Parent ]

          • Re:Good job everyone! (Score:5, Insightful)

            by znu (31198) <znu@acedsl.com> on Monday April 02 2007, @10:36AM (#18573589)
            "But DJCacophony," you may say, "there are other players that can handle unprotected AAC." I am well aware of this, but the fact of the matter is that there aren't a whole lot, and Jobs knows this.

            This is a silly argument. True, there aren't a lot of other players that do AAC now. But if being compatible with iTunes downloads is as useful to Apple's competitors as you imply, they'll all support it pretty fast. The notion that Apple should adopt an inferior format just to save its competitors the trouble of implementing AAC is frankly ludicrous.
            [ Parent ]

    • Re:Good job everyone! (Score:5, Funny)

      by Luke Psywalker (869266) on Monday April 02 2007, @10:04AM (#18573051)
      ...please refrain from further encouraging slashdotters to give themselves 'a hand'
      [ Parent ]

      • Re:Good job everyone! (Score:5, Informative)

        by superm401 (828851) on Monday April 02 2007, @10:06AM (#18573103)
        Actually, albums are the same price, DRM or not. Only individual songs have the surcharge. Can't understand the logic, but I prefer albums anyway.
        [ Parent ]

      • Re:Good job everyone! (Score:5, Interesting)

        by sgant (178166) <ksgant@NoSPAM.gmail.com> on Monday April 02 2007, @10:23AM (#18573337) Homepage Journal
        no pleasing some people. If they offered it at the same price, they'd still complain that not ALL the music on iTunes is DRM free. Once they do that, then they'd complain about the .99 cents saying it's too much.

        If Apple gave away the music for free in FLAC or Apple Lossless people would STILL complain ("these files are too big...etc etc").

        Again, no pleasing some people. Even though you could buy the full album at the higher bitrate AND it being DRM free AND it's still cheaper than buying the physical CD. pfft....
        [ Parent ]

      • Re:Wait a Minute (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Itchy Rich (818896) on Monday April 02 2007, @10:13AM (#18573195)

        How is the DRM going to make a profit if their product's marginal utility (apparently) is -$.30?

        Without DRM there'd be far less excuse to charge extra for the DRM-free version. The $1.30 version will subsidise the $1 DRM-encumbered version.

        It's a bit like the way the supermarkets virtually wiped out tastier (but odd-looking) varieties of fruit and veg for cosmetic reasons. They're then selling them back to us as luxury items now we're used to eating the pretty (but tasteless) varieties.

        [ Parent ]

  • Alright Slashdot... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 02 2007, @09:49AM (#18572849)
    .. everyone who wanted DRM-free music put your money where your mouth is!

      • Re:Alright Slashdot... (Score:5, Informative)

        by mgv (198488) <Nospam,01,slash2dot&veltman,org> on Monday April 02 2007, @10:30AM (#18573459) Journal
        But the more important issue is... I'm currently interested in Japanese bands and they don't seem to want to sell this to me in Canada. I would literally jump at the chance to buy music, DRM free, at $1.20 per song. Shipping the damn CD's into Canada costs me a mint. Luckily I can bundle it with my manga purchases, but I'm still looking at close to $30 for most CDs (each) to get it here.

        How about buying some Japanese iTunes gift cards on eBay?

        Certainly I use US iTunes gift cards in Australia...

        Michael
        [ Parent ]

  • $9.99 Albums will be 256kbps/DRM Free (Score:5, Informative)

    by scifience (674659) <webmaster@scifience.net> on Monday April 02 2007, @10:05AM (#18573063) Homepage
    I didn't see it mentioned in a brief look at the articles above, but albums will automatically be 256kbps and DRM free at the normal price. This should help encourage album sales. Ideally, they would offer the lower quality songs without DRM as well, but this is undoubtedly prevented by their current contracts with the other labels. Only by offering a new "product" were they able to remove the DRM. This is the same reason that they are unable to remove the DRM from songs released by indie labels that requested no DRM.

  • What is the justification (Score:5, Insightful)

    by zeoslap (190553) on Monday April 02 2007, @10:07AM (#18573111) Homepage
    So what exactly is their justification for leaving DRM on the $0.99 tracks? It can't be that they are afraid people will release them into the wild if the higher quality tracks are now DRM free, so why not remove it?

  • It's a Start! (Score:5, Informative)

    by Luscious868 (679143) on Monday April 02 2007, @10:09AM (#18573133)

    This is excellent news! I love that they are offering the option to upgrade any previously purchased songs to the 256 kbps DRM free version for 30 cents a track. I plan on upgrading all of my tracks as soon as they are available. While I think that $1.29 is a little bit high for a track without DRM (I'd like to see them for the same price as the version with DRM), it's reasonable enough for me. You get twice the quality and no DRM for 30 cents more a track.

    It also appears as if deals with other studios are imminent. From the press release [apple.com] [apple.com]:

    "We are going to give iTunes customers a choice--the current versions of our songs for the same 99 cent price, or new DRM-free versions of the same songs with even higher audio quality and the security of interoperability for just 30 cents more," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "We think our customers are going to love this, and we expect to offer more than half of the songs on iTunes in DRM-free versions by the end of this year."

      • Wrong (Score:5, Informative)

        by brunes69 (86786) <(gro.daetsriek) (ta) (todhsals)> on Monday April 02 2007, @10:36AM (#18573585) Homepage
        New albums from EMI are $9.99, 256kbps, and DRM free. RTFA.

        Now, sure, if you build a MIX AND MATCH album of you're fav singles at 256kbps, it would wind up costing you $20. But name me a music store where I can go in and buy a mix-and-match CD?

        You're comparing apples to oranges there.

        [ Parent ]

  • cojones (Score:5, Interesting)

    by suzerain (245705) on Monday April 02 2007, @10:12AM (#18573179) Homepage
    Man, say what you want about Steve Jobs. He's got a famous temper, he doesn't compromise, he likes closed systems, etc. and so on. But one thing he definitely has is balls, and sometimes we can benefit from it.

    So, he apparently finally has convinced one label to drop the DRM, and yes, he's charging more for the content, but he goes and ups the bitrate, just so the content from the non-participating labels looks like shit in comparison. That takes some cojones, and I gotta say, I admire him for that. Could it possibly be that DRM will become one of those horrible memories from the past that we can all suppress? Time will tell, but at least today, I say this is relatively good news.

    And, you know..."fuck the RIAA" goes without saying.

  • WaterMarking (Score:5, Interesting)

    by tecker (793737) on Monday April 02 2007, @10:21AM (#18573291) Homepage
    Another advantage of the higher bitrates is the ability to slip in watermarking. Thanks to perfect digital replication the instant this appeared on P2P they could trace the file back to the person that purchased the media.

    Think about it. Apple has not released the details of the tracks other then "256kb aac" w/o DRM. They don't say that it will be delayed downloading (rather then the buy, download, listen now) could be "Thanks for purchasing. Your music will arrive shortly in you library and purchased media areas." Then about 5 minutes later the track downloads. And seeing how apple doesn't allow for a redownloading (i think) they simply add the watermarking into the database and delete the track.

    EMI find a DRM free version of the music on the internet (Coldplay-Clocks.m4a) and downloads it from people. They compare the watermark, it comes back to you, you get sued like no other on the planet as an example.

    (the old tired method of this but):
    1) Announce DRM Free media
    2) Release DRM free media w/ Watermarking
    3) Download version from internet
    4) Link watermarking to individual
    5) SUE THE PANTS OFF OF THEM!!!
    6) ??? (Repeat?)
    7) Profit somehow.

    Its a possibility. Don't just celebrate yet. I've got a feeling this wont be with out some strings

  • Where are all those anti-Jobs people now? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by SengirV (203400) on Monday April 02 2007, @10:23AM (#18573331)
    After Jobs made his "get rid of DRM" speech a month or two ago, they were coming out of the woodwork blasting him for being a hypocrite. Maybe these know-nothings will now realize that he couldn't make these changes on his own, he needed the labels themselves to come along.

    NOW that one of them is promoting anti-DRM versions, expect the indy stuff to follow suit. These same anti-Jobs people will lament the fact Jobs didn't do this with indy bands 1st. It's called negotiations people. Getting a major label to do this is 10 times better than having ONLY the indy bands DRM free. This is a major change in thinking for the big labels. And that made it well worth the wait.

    Maybe if the anti-Jobs people would focus more on Microsoft and their disabling of the Zune wifi for a change, even more progress can be made in the DRM free world. But I'm guessing that the anti-Job reaction to his speech wasn't atually about his speech, it was more about being Microsoft lap dogs.

  • April's Fool (Score:5, Informative)

    by Lars T. (470328) <Lars...Traeger@@@googlemail...com> on Monday April 02 2007, @10:27AM (#18573393) Journal
    The press conference has only streaming WindowsMedia and Real, no Quicktime?

    • Re:New prices (Score:5, Insightful)

      by AKAImBatman (238306) * <akaimbatman@NosPaM.gmail.com> on Monday April 02 2007, @09:58AM (#18572963) Homepage Journal

      So you can pay more for the service that you should have had in the first place?

      Uh, no? Jobs isn't stupid. As the summary says, these files are encoded at a much higher bitrate. So what you're really paying more for is higher quality files. Of course, you could get higher quality files on anti-DRM principles, but the result is still the same: You get twice the "standard" bitrate for about 30% more. You can decide for yourself if that's a deal or not.
      [ Parent ]

    • Re:30 cent copyright levy (Score:5, Insightful)

      by bilbravo (763359) on Monday April 02 2007, @10:08AM (#18573123) Homepage
      No, it doesn't. As others (who have read the article) said, the .30 price increase is due to the doubled bitrate. It might be a convenient cop-out, but it still doesn't give anyone the right to distribute the file.
      [ Parent ]

    • Re:DRM-Free AACs are still locked to Ipods! (Score:5, Insightful)

      by gEvil (beta) (945888) on Monday April 02 2007, @10:10AM (#18573151)
      The format is still locked to the Ipod, which is entirely the problem!

      Ummm, no it's not. AAC is a fairly standard format (though not as ubiquitous as mp3). Many players out there will play non-DRM'd AAC files with no problem. The Zune comes to mind. Hell, my Samsung phone will play them. This is a good thing all around. And since album prices are staying the same, I can only view this as a good move.
      [ Parent ]
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