EMI music announced today that their catalog of digital music will be made available, starting with Apple's iTunes download service, without Digital Rights Management (DRM) restrictions.
Apple's iTunes Store (www.itunes.com) is the first online music store to receive EMI's new premium downloads. Apple has announced that iTunes will make individual AAC format tracks available from EMI artists at twice the sound quality of existing downloads, with their DRM removed, at a price of $1.29/¬1.29/£0.99. iTunes will continue to offer consumers the ability to pay $0.99/¬0.99/£0.79 for standard sound quality tracks with DRM still applied. Complete albums from EMI Music artists purchased on the iTunes Store will automatically be sold at the higher sound quality and DRM-free, with no change in the price. Consumers who have already purchased standard tracks or albums with DRM will be able to upgrade their digital music for $0.30/¬0.30/£0.20 per track. All EMI music videos will also be available on the iTunes Store DRM-free with no change in price.