EMI ditches DRM

Finally !!!

Finally EMI, one of the big four major record companies, has decided to go for what will undoubtedly be remembered as THE event of 2007 in the music industry. On April 2^nd, EMI Group CEO Eric Nicoli announced that EMI would drop digital rights management (DRM) restrictions on the tracks it offers through Apple's iTunes. This makes the recording giant the first of the four big music labels to ditch DRM! This revolution will come with a slight premium on the DRM-free tracks, which amounts to 0,30 € per track.

That’s one small step for EMI, one giant leap for the music industry! We at digIntel had seen this coming for a few months now, with the growing protests of consumers about DRM, Steve Job’s public opposition to it since February, as well as an accumulation of small indicators that announced the beginning of the end for DRM.

Small independent labels had already opened their catalog to online music sites, but this is the first major label to do so. And this is huge, considering EMI's artists include some of the biggest names in music both past and present: The Beach Boys, Pink Floyd, Janet Jackson, Robbie Williams, Depeche Mode, Iron Maiden, The Rolling Stones, Al Green, Moby and Queen.

Even more great news, the pioneer major didn’t limit this very smart move to just iTunes. EMI officially announced that this offer is open to any online music website! This has immediately appealed to many of them, including VirginMega.fr. Managing director Julien Ulrich announced, just a few hours after EMI’s statement, that it would accept EMI’s DRM-free catalog with great pleasure. Furthermore, DRM’s days are increasingly counted, since he also stated that other major labels would follow by the end of 2007!

From the beginning, we at digIntel have always firmly stated our opposition to DRM. Seems we were right to get our hopes too high…

Links

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9015282&source=rss_news10
http://www.wired.com/entertainment/music/news/2007/04/emihardware_0403
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,2110314,00.asp?kc=PCRSS03069TX1K0001121
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,130308-pg,1/article.html
http://www.01net.com/article/345266.html
http://www.pcinpact.com/actu/news/35629-dadvsi-DRM-EMI-APple-virginmega.htm