Carlsbad, Calif. – Calling it a milestone in digital music, Apple Inc. on Wednesday for the first time sold songs that can be freely copied or played on any number of devices.
Apple’s launch of a new version of its online music store, called iTunes Plus, marks the first time a major record label has removed digital rights management software protections on downloadable music.
Apple and EMI Group – whose artists include the Rolling Stones, Coldplay, Norah Jones and Frank Sinatra – announced in April that they were working on dropping DRM while improving the quality of recordings.
Songs on iTunes Plus are encoded using twice as many digital bits as those on iTunes, offering a quality level that Apple claims is virtually indistinguishable from the original recordings.
The new freedom and quality come at a price.
Songs on iTunes Plus are $1.29, while the regular iTunes store will still sell 99-cent versions of DRM-protected songs. ITunes customers can upgrade their library of previously purchased EMI content for 30 cents a song and $3 for most albums.
Most record labels have resisted dropping DRM protections because they believe unauthorized copying of digital music cuts into their profits. But many industry analysts predict other record labels, under pressure from Apple, will likely follow EMI.
Apple’s iTunes is by far the world’s most popular online music store. If record labels want their songs there, to some extent they have to play by Apple’s rules.
Wednesday, Apple chairman Steve Jobs said EMI’s shift is just the beginning.
“We expect more than half of the songs on iTunes will be offered in iTunes Plus versions by the end of this year,” Jobs said in a statement.
The DRM move by Apple and EMI actually could help Microsoft’s Zune. That’s because music downloaded from iTunes Plus also is supposed to work on other portable players, such as Zune, for the first time.
