03 Apr 07 Can it be? A record label not being evil?

Well what came as a shock to me yesterday, EMI (one of the big record labels) yesterday announced, with Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs, that Apple’s iTunes Store will be the first store in May of this year to sell songs and albums without DRM (thus allowing playback on MP3 player that can play an unsecured AAC file) and at double the quality (256kbps instead of 128kbps). All for 30 cents more. $0.99 for DRM, 128kbit music or $1.29 for DRM-less, 256kbps music. Oh and albums ($9.99) by EMI will remain the same price but will get these features as well. That is far cheaper then a CD purchased in the store. Lets not forget that a future upgrade to iTunes will allow those that have purchased EMI music in the past to upgrade their music for 30 cents a song.

I applaud EMI for taking this step. It definitely is a step in the right direction. Hopefully the consumer market will see this as well and soon another big player will take this step.