[staff]

Will DRM die today? In five hours we’ll find out. At 1 PM London time today EMI CEO Eric Nicoli and Apple CEO Steve Jobs will hold a forty minute press conference. Lots of press were invited early this morning to attend, but no information was distributed other than “to hear about an exciting new digital offering.”

The Wall Street Journal seems to know a bit more, though. They say (behind a paywall) that the two are set to announce that a significant portion of EMI’s catalog will be sold online without any DRM. EMI is the third largest music label after Universal and Sony.

Labels like DRM because users can’t easily copy songs to give to friends. Users hate DRM because they are locked in to one device or service. Earlier this year Jobs wrote an open letter to music labels calling for them to “abolish DRMs entirely.” In that letter he noted that only 22 out of every 1,000 songs on the average iPod, or less than 3%, were purchased from iTunes. The rest were ripped from CDs and obtained illegally.

Given the plethora of illegal services for obtaining DRM-free music for free, DRM-laden online digital music ***** haven’t grown fast enough to offset plummeting CD *****, which down 20% in the last year. A billion songs a month are downloaded, mostly illegally, from P2P networks.

If EMI does in fact announce that they will sell music without DRM, Jobs is going to get most or all of the credit. If ***** increase, expect the other three big music labels to join as well. And April 2, 2007 will be a day music fans remember forever.

More on CrunchGear.

[alma]

http://digg.com/gadgets/EMI_Apple_C...e_Live_Coverage

[giacchettone]

Tra Apple ed Emi è storico accordo
"Tutto il catalogo senza Drm su iTunes"



LONDRA - La Apple e la Emi hanno trovato l'accordo. La casa discografica britannica, una delle quattro major a spartirsi il 75% del mercato mondiale, rilascerà tutto il suo catalogo di canzoni e video musicali sul portale iTunes senza Drm, le protezioni digitali che non ne permettono la copia.

Una vera e propria rivoluzione per la musica digitale, che arriva dopo le polemiche sollevate dal Ceo di Apple Steve Jobs sulle politiche di protezione digitali da parte delle case discografiche.

"Gli utenti ci hanno detto che per loro l'interoperabilità, cioè la possibilità di leggere una canzone scaricata da un negozio on line su qualsiasi lettore mp3 era la cosa più importante", ha spiegato durante la conferenza congiunta con Apple il presidente di Emi Eric Nicoli. "Apple è la società pioniera della muscia digitale. E siamo contenti che condivida la nostra visione di una musica libera da restrizioni. Da oggi, le nostre canzoni saranno senza protezioni. E di qualità ancora superiore". Ma costeranno anche di più: 1.29 dollari invece di 0.99.

Da oggi, quindi, le canzone acquistata sull'iTunes Store che fanno parte del catalogo Emi potranno essere ascoltate anche su qualsiasi lettore mp3 della concorrenza e non solo sull'iPod, come era accaduto fino ad oggi. Per la Apple si tratta di un vero e proprio sospiro di sollievo: l'esclusività del sistema iTunes-iPod aveva suscitato le critiche di molte associazioni di consumatori europee. Anche il parlamento norvegese aveva bacchettato la società di Cupertino a tal riguardo.

"Vendere musica digitale senza Drm è un passo obbligato per l'industria musicale - ha dichiarato il Ceo di Apple Steve Jobs - e la Emi guida ancora una volta l'industria con un'innovazione che lascerà il segno. Il catalogo reso disponibile da oggi non solo è senza Drm. Ma anche di una qualità superiore. Penso che gli utenti di iTunes saranno contenti di pagare appena 30 centesimi in più per le loro canzoni. Ovviamente, sarà sempre possibile acquistare le stesse canzoni, ma di qualità inferiore, con i Drm. Vogliamo dare alla gente possibilità di scegliere. Questa è la libertà digitale".

Repubblica.it

[staff]

E’ con immenso piacere che vi riporto una notizia di fondamentale importanza apparsa in queste ore. Il CEO di EMI (Music) Eric Nicoli ed il CEO di Apple Steve Jobs, hanno annunciato che gran parte del catalogo EMI su iTunes verrà distribuito senza DRM. Il motivo? Tanto è tutto inutile! Testuali parole. L’unica differenza sarà un sovrapprezzo di .30$ a canzone, che porta il prezzo per brano da .99$ a 1.29$.

Ecco fatto, gli scettici sono serviti!

fonte: tommaso.tessarolo.it

[staff]

8:15am - Nicoli says this furthers their quest to provide consumers with "the best possible [color=green! important][color=green! important]digital [color=green! important]music[/color][/color][/color] 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 [color=green! important][color=green! important]live [color=green! important]music[/color][/color][/color] 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 [color=green! important][color=green! important]digital [color=green! important]downloads[/color][/color][/color] with two key features. First -- Free of DRM. Second -- Vastly improved sound quality. Individual songs will have higher whole**** price than regular individual songs. The albums, however, will keep the same whole**** 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 ***** 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 whole**** 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.

fonte: http://www.ipodobserver.com/

[staff]

Conferenza stampa audio:

http://w3.cantos.com/07/pjxrobbi-70...s.php?task=view

[corso]

it was about time they removed that useless device. the only way to sell music is to promote it like old times and, above all, make quality music. so let´s hope this is a good lesson for the future. prohibition never worked. history teaches.

[alma]

Come da titolo dal Guardian Unlimited

[alma]

LoneleyCyclon15 spiega i DRM

[alma]

So DRM isn't dead. But it's dying

Dal Register/hardware