News

Steve Jobs Outlines iTunes DRM-free Plan

Monday, April 2nd, 2007 at 8:55 AM - by

Speaking at a joint press conference with EMI Group in London, Apple CEO Steve Jobs reiterated his stance against copy protection in music downloads, and explained exactly what the iTunes Store is doing to promote interoperability between portable media devices.

Starting in May, the iTunes Store will offer EMI's catalog worldwide without copy protection, and those enhanced tracks will also be encoded at 256kb AAC - twice the bit rate as current Fairplay-encoded tracks - for US$1.29 each. The existing DRM-enabled library will still be available at the standard $0.99 a track, allowing users to choose which version of the songs they want. Full album pricing, however, will remain the same: Users will not have to pay a premium for DRM-free full album purchases.

Mr. Jobs called the new DRM-free music option an "interoperability safety net," meaning users can purchase tracks without worrying which brand music player they will load the songs on.

Apple is also offering EMI's DRM-free deal to all music labels. Mr. Jobs predicts that about half of the 5 million tracks available at the iTunes Store will be DRM-free by the end of 2007 as additional labels come on board.

Users hoping for video downloads without copy protection, however, will still have to wait. Mr. Jobs said that the video market works differently than the music market since CDs are already sold without copy protection, but commercial DVDs are not.

Although Apple is the first company to offer EMI's library without copy protection, it won't be the only one. EMI is offering its higher priced DRM-free music to other resellers as well. So far there is no word on which music download services will sign on.

Apple's place as the market leader in music downloads puts the company in a strong position to advocate DRM-free song purchases. Despite resistance from other labels, the deal with EMI may signal the beginning of the end for music copy protection.

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A guest said: (hide)

Mon Apr 02, 2007 9:49 am

I hope this isn't a late joke...

If it isn't, GO STEVE!

Oh yeah, and FIRST!

-Mobi

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jpfreeman said:

member since 12 Jan 2005 with 47 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Mon Apr 02, 2007 9:58 am

This is good news. Two questions:

- are people really willing to pay $1.29 for DRM free songs?

- Are there other mp3 players that play AAC?

This doesn't effect me much personally. I'm all Apple. I don't buy many songs from iTunes. I could always burn and rip if I really wanted to get around the DRM.

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snaab4 said:

member since 02 Apr 2007 with 6 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Mon Apr 02, 2007 10:00 am

I listened to the webcast and re-read the specs above. EMI stated their desire for full interoperability and that they would provide DRM-free hiqh audio quality tracks in mp3 format. Then Steve Jobs said that the high quality tracks on iTunes would be 256-AAC. I know that by removing fairplay DRM, the aac tracks will be playable on players other than iPods, but is this FULL interoperability? How many players play aac versus the number of players that will play mp3? This dichotomy seems to have been avoided, and I seemed to notice Steve Jobs quietly side-step the issue when questioned by the press.

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Intruder said:

member since 07 Jul 2004 with 2840 posts, TMO Mac Specialist, send him a message or view his profile

Mon Apr 02, 2007 10:01 am

There are other players that play AAC. If I read the press release correctly, it will be offered in a variety of formats including AAC, mp3 and WMA. iTunes will most likely stick with AAC.

And from the reactions, I would say that yes there are people who are willing to pay $1.29 for the increase in quality and no DRM.

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snaab4 said:

member since 02 Apr 2007 with 6 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Mon Apr 02, 2007 10:06 am

Quote
Intruder wrote:
And from the reactions, I would say that yes there are people who are willing to pay $1.29 for the increase in quality and no DRM.

The drawback will be the iPod capacity reduction due to the much larger file size. And we all know that Steve will still quote iPod capacity based on the smaller fairplay aac file size.....

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Engine Joe said:

member since 29 Jun 2004 with 412 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Mon Apr 02, 2007 10:16 am

Since most of my stuff is currently encoded at 320 Kbps, 256 will actually increase the capacity of my iPod in a sense -- it will be good enough at that rate for my ear.

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DrD said:

member since 28 Apr 2003 with 40 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Mon Apr 02, 2007 10:19 am

Wicked I know, but just imagine how this is going to affect the Zune points system for purchases since $1.29 doesn't work so well for prepurchase of $10 of points. That and can you possibly imagine MSoft distributing something without DRM on it. Sweet.

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Small White Car said:

member since 02 Jul 2004 with 1937 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Mon Apr 02, 2007 10:28 am

Quote
jpfreeman wrote:
This is good news. Two questions:

- Are there other mp3 players that play AAC?

Yes

Quote
jpfreeman wrote:
Are people really willing to pay $1.29 for DRM free songs?

And very much YES!

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Biff said:

member since 08 Apr 2004 with 1479 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Mon Apr 02, 2007 11:27 am

Those who have been paying attention know that the labels are big fans of full album purchases. Now people have more motivation to buy the album over the singles.

For those wondering how many players play AAC... prepare to see the list grow VERY quickly. Expect to see some firmware updates! Will this affect iPod market share? No.

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dhp said:

member since 22 May 2003 with 176 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Mon Apr 02, 2007 11:29 am

Since subscription services rely on DRM to function, this seems like another blow to that model of distribution.

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acdc1174 said:

member since 16 Apr 2004 with 668 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Mon Apr 02, 2007 11:54 am

::Sigh:: And so the slow creep begins. It will only be a matter of time before the $0.99 download is no more. First we will have a two-tiered menu from which to choose. Then as time goes on, I believe the FairPlay offerings will disappear in favor of the higher-quality, DRM-Free oferings. Oh well...

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JulesLt said:

member since 06 Jul 2005 with 136 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Mon Apr 02, 2007 1:03 pm

AAC is, unlike MP3, a royalty-free format, so already has wide support, and most players have updateable firmware.

Yes, it's partly about driving album purchases and a step to the variable prices the majors want, but it's actually the same price difference (in the UK) between iTunes prices and the price for high-rate MP3 files indies sell on bleep and playlouder. People forget that the Fairplay DRM is one reason Apple were able to negotiate better prices for iTMS customers in the first place - they were adding some value for the music labels, but selling non-DRM files they are just another retailer selling the same goods.

The positive thing here is that once other stores start offering the same files, there should be a pressure to drive prices downward (competition) to balance the pressure from the majors to push prices upwards. The main point is that it was Fairplay that allowed Apple to dictate terms on prices, and in removing it they lose that lever. Personally I think that's a good thing - I want the future of Apple to be making innovative products, not becoming the world's biggest media retailer.

For what it's worth, I think the subscription model will continue - with DRM - it's about choices at the end of the day, and music companies will sell in any channel that makes money.

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A guest said: (hide)

Mon Apr 02, 2007 2:27 pm

As for other players being compatible with AAC - if the files are DRM-free, I guess they can easily be converted to mp3?

The next is; what will the Norwegian consumer's ombudsman say now? Maybe they will say that this is a good step in the right direction but since most people use Windows PC, Apple should sell songs in the WMA-format. I wouldn't be surprised but then they have lost all credibility in my eyes.

For the record; I am Norwegian and all for the consumer ombudsman, but not in this case...

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Small White Car said:

member since 02 Jul 2004 with 1937 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Mon Apr 02, 2007 2:28 pm

Quote
JulesLt wrote:
AAC is, unlike MP3, a royalty-free format.

Not true.

In fact, here are the prices to use AAC:

http://www.vialicensing.com/Licensing/MPEG4_fees.cfm?product=MPEG-4AAC

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Small White Car said:

member since 02 Jul 2004 with 1937 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Mon Apr 02, 2007 2:31 pm

Quote
Anonymous wrote:
Maybe they will say that this is a good step in the right direction but since most people use Windows PC, Apple should sell songs in the WMA-format.

No, there's no problem there. iTunes and Quicktime are 2 free software options on Windows to play AAC files. I'm fairly sure that the Zune will play them so whatever software controls the Zune is yet another one.

So there are many ways to play AACs in Windows. It's not an issue.

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A guest said: (hide)

Mon Apr 02, 2007 7:36 pm

Quote
Small White Car wrote:
Quote
Anonymous wrote:
Maybe they will say that this is a good step in the right direction but since most people use Windows PC, Apple should sell songs in the WMA-format.

No, there's no problem there. iTunes and Quicktime are 2 free software options on Windows to play AAC files. I'm fairly sure that the Zune will play them so whatever software controls the Zune is yet another one.

So there are many ways to play AACs in Windows. It's not an issue.

The Zune does play AAC files.

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gslusher said:

member since 13 Nov 2002 with 2003 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Mon Apr 02, 2007 7:38 pm

Quote
Anonymous wrote:

The Zune does play AAC files.

Damned iPO forum software--it should have automatically logged me in. That was my comment.

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A guest said: (hide)

Wed Apr 04, 2007 7:52 am

DVDs have copy protection? Gee, I thought it was 2007 and not 1997 when CSS still was a valid copy protection.

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