EMI CEO Eric Nicoli and Apple CEO Steve Jobs are making a joint announcement in London this morning. Check here for the highlights live as it happens. All times listed EDT

8:15am - Nicoli says this furthers their quest to provide consumers with "the best possible digital music experience." Then straight into two tunes (thus far) from "The Good, The Bad, and The Queen," after which the announcement should be made.

Engadget pointed us all to the contents of the HTML that indicate DRM-free music is coming

8:21am - the live music performance is over and we're back to house music awaiting the return of Nicoli and Jobs.

8:22am - They're back on stage. Nicoli - "we're focusing on providing consumers with compelling digitial experience, including:

1. good value for money
2. choice
3. simple for customers

This gives consumers the music what they want, and consumers have told us that they are willing to pay more for higher-fidelity, DRM-free downloads.

Sound fidelity is important factor.

EMI is now releasing premium digital downloads with two key features. First -- Free of DRM. Second -- Vastly improved sound quality. Individual songs will have higher wholesale price than regular individual songs. The albums, however, will keep the same wholesale pricing.

Also EMI is removing DRM from Video Downloads. [but as we see later down, that's doesn't necessarily translate to iTunes yet].

8:28am - Steve Jobs is on stage. Reiterating that EMI/Apple are announcing ""next big step forward" and offering completely DRM-free music. Entire digital catalog from EMI will be available on iTunes beginning in May.

8:30am - Jobs: To take things to the next level, we need interoperability (and not by way of burning to CD and ripping back). Also need higher audio quality to cater to the true audiophiles. These will all be released in 256kbps AAC for audio quality that is "virtually indistinguishable" from a CD. DRM-free, high-quality songs will be available for 30 cents more than current individual tracks. US$1.29 per track.

8:32am - Anyone with existing 128kbps AAC EMI files will be able to upgrade to the new, DRM-free, 256bkps AAC for US$0.30 each.

8:34am - Jobs: "Starting today we will reach out to other labels to give them this same opportunity."

8:35am - Jobs is estimating over half of all iTunes Store tracks will be DRM-Free by the end of the year.

8:36am - First question: When are the Beatles tracks coming? Jobs answered that he, too, wants to know the answer to that.

8:37am - Answer to question clarifying the way it works: Jobs says that the existing, DRM'ed, US$0.99, 128kbps songs will still be available, and you can set iTunes to automatically choose one over the other. Once you set it, it remembers that setting for all future purchases.

8:39am - Jobs: "we compete on what we think is the best music player and what we think is the best music store."

8:40am - Nicoli: confirmed that this will be available to all partners, not just iTunes.

8:41am - Nicoli: Best way to combat illegal usage is to make things better and easier for customers legally.

8:42am - Jobs: Says he can't speak about the other labels yet, then went on to commend EMI for pioneering this important step. Reiterated the point that CDs don't ship with DRM, and this is not something radically new -- it's bringing digital up to the level of the remaining 90% of the music (i.e. physical media) that ships from the labels today.

8:44am - Jobs: Video won't necessarily be DRM free soon. Due to the fact that the video industry does NOT ship 90% of their content DRM free and "never has," (though clearly he forgot about our long-history of VHS tape sales and usage, pre-DVD).

8:46am - Nicoli: This is still an industry in its infancy, and the opportunity is massive.

8:47am - Jobs: This does not break the link between iPod and iTunes, since that link never really existed (He keeps beating the point that iTunes music has always been effectively DRM-free by way of burning and re-ripping from a CD).

8:49am - Nicoli, reporters, and Jobs are joking about (and clearly diffusing) rumors regarding EMI, Apple, and/or Apple Corps buying each other.

8:50am - Jobs: the current model (DRM, US$0.99, 128kpbs AAC) is NOT going away. Choice lies with customer.

8:53am - When asked about other stores implementations of this (subscription vs. a la carte) Nicoli stated that EMI only sets wholesale pricing *only*, therefore each retailer can choose if and how to implement.

8:54am - Nicoli: never saw merit stimulating or fueling talk about Warner/EMI merger projects.

8:54am - Nicoli: "Digital growth is a very important part of our future strategy [...] and we believe this will stimulate growth."

8:54am - Jobs: in Digital music players: "Storage is going up, prices are coming down, and this is a good time to do this."

8:56am - Nicoli and Jobs congratulated each other, and it's over.