April 02, 2007 — IDG News Service — A news conference in London later Monday by Apple's Steve Jobs and EMI Group could see the announcement that the first of the four big music labels will ditch digital rights management (DRM).

Ever since invitations went out to the event, scheduled for 1 p.m. local time (noon GMT) at EMI's London headquarters, speculation in the media and online has centered on two possibilities: the Beatles catalog coming to the iTunes Music Store, or EMI ditching DRM. The latter is fast becoming the favorite, especially after The Wall Street Journal said such an announcement would come at the event.

DRM is applied to many downloads to prevent illegal copying or sharing of the content, but it also prevents legal copying and can tie users into a certain product or technology. For example, Apple's iPod won't play DRM-protected songs purchased from anything but the iTunes Music Store, while owners of Creative Technology's devices aren't able to use the iTunes store because those downloads are incompatible.

Jobs called for an end to the use of DRM on music files in a blog-like posting on the Apple homepage in February. In it he argued that consumers would benefit because any player would be able to play music from any online music store and not be restricted as it is currently.

"This is clearly the best alternative for consumers, and Apple would embrace it in a heartbeat," he wrote.

Such a deal!!!!!!!!

$1.29 for EMI songs on iTunes!!!!
- tom moody 4-02-2007 6:26 pm