I know that this is a bit old, (a whole day!) but I just want to give my two cents on this little piece of news…
From Cnet:
EMI’s entire digital music catalog will be available in premium DRM-free form via iTunes in May, the music label said Monday at a press conference in London. Beatles tunes under EMI’s control, however, are not part of the plan.
Higher-quality music files, which will play on any computer and any digital-audio player, will not replace the copy-protected EMI music currently sold through iTunes. Rather, they will complement the standard 99-cent iTunes downloads and will be sold at a premium: $1.29 per song.
When I read this, I just though “Good for EMI!” Now that they’ve done it, another major label is sure to follow, and soon it won’t be who’s selling DRM-free music, but who ISN’T. And seriously, I thing that the $1.29 deal is very fair. Sure, all of those 30 cents can add up, but it’s a small price to pay for actually OWNING your music - and it’s in higher quality. This idea is SOOO Apple, and I applaud them (and EMI) for making it work. Hopefully, you’ll be able to upgrade your old music also.
And about The Beatles. Who really cares anymore? People have been speculating about when they’ll be on iTunes for years! And everytime Apple settles something with Apple (heh), it’s like, “oh, now there’s a chance!” but then it doesn’t happen. Most people who want The Beatles already HAVE The Beatles. I mean, do you really think that anyone’s holding out on buying them until they’re on iTunes?
I still think there’s some reason Jobs was teasing us with Beatles tunes when he introduced the iPhone. Where there’s smoke there’s fire. I’m sure it’ll happen eventually.