What is Digg?Sponsored by Sony Pictures
Do you believe the 2012 Mayan Prophecy? view!
whowillsurvive2012.com - The Mayan Calendar predicts the end of time: 2012. See the trailer for 2012, opening November 13.
49 Comments
- trghpy, on 10/12/2007, -4/+18bleh, buy used CD's.
Skip the RIAA tax. - mc7winkie, on 10/12/2007, -3/+15Does no one see it as a total joke to have to burn your OWN songs to a CD just so that YOU can listen to them in a FAIR and LEGAL manner? Don't call it convenient. It isn't! Don't call it intuitive. It isn't! Call it what it really is. A joke and a shame.
- joshpar, on 10/12/2007, -7/+19why do you have to 'promise' to use an iPod? This still seems to be one of the biggest mis-conceptions. Burn the thing, play it anywhere. Put that disc into another your car disc player, your computer, a DVD player ... rip it again, do whatever you want with it! I buy from iTunes all the time withough having an iPod, DRM or not. I'm just glad to see the bump in sound quality... albums for $13 or so??? wow, reminds me of buying discs in the early 90s.
- ArnoldTPants, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9bovox
That's the dumbest thing I have ever read. Lossy formats will be gone way before CDs. Storage is getting to the point were there is no need for music to be lossy. Lossy formats will start to fade away in about 5 years. CDs will be around for at least the next 10 years. - imcquill, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6One thing that I really like is that the full length albums are exactly the same price, with higher quality and DRM-free. There is definitely a price advantage now to getting full length albums. I appreciate this from a musical perspective. What I hope is that it will encourage better music because artists will need deeper album cuts rather than catchy singles. It has always been good for music to focus more on albums than songs. It started in the late 60's, but we've reverted back to caring more about singles.. between MTV, and now iTunes. I applaud the move in hopes that it makes the music better somehow (by improving the way we listen to it).
I like Coverflow for the same reason. - ElbridgeGerry, on 10/12/2007, -3/+8Holy CRAP, this story's been submitted more times than anything I've ever seen.
- franksands, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5the best quote IMHO:
Q: Eric, the music industry has talked about DRM being the vital block against unlimited file sharing. What do you think the impact of this is now going to be? Are you now giving people the green light to share unprotected MP3 files as they like?
A: Well, we've always argued that the best way to combat illegal traffic is to make legal content available at decent value and conveniently. And we take the view that we have to trust consumers. The fact that some will continue to disappoint us and continue to steal the music is inevitable. So this doesn't in any way diminish out commitment to fighting piracy in all its forms, and we will continue to do that. At the same time, we think that the key is to give consumers a compelling experience -- the best possible digital music experience. To trust them. To educate them, because many are not quite sure what's legal and what's not legal. And, I think that way we will grow sales rather than diminish them.
--quote ends---
It looks like somebody finally listened. You are innocent until proven otherwise, and not the other way around. - KillerX, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7This is a more complete transcript of the EMI press conference.
- quazywabbit, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5if you don't like seeing the Apple section turn it off, its as easy as that.
- joshpar, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6It's big news... count how many 'DRM sucks' comments there are in Digg... I imagine there is a connection to a major service even starting to strip it away.
- superkendall, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Even if you strip the DRM from a file (which takes work) you still are left with a lower quality encoding. I'd rather pay a very small amount more, and not have to go trhoguh ahy work to strip DRM while I also get better sounds quality.
The day they make the option availaible, I'm upgrading my whole collection. - sbenus, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5"Steve: For those customers that are very price sensitive, we don't want to raise prices on anybody. We really believe in continuing with what we started and if people want to continue to pay 79 pence for their tracks, and they're perfectly happy with the way they are, we don't want to tell them they have to pay more. We want to offer them more value for a little more money and give them the choice. But we don't want to say that we're taking away something that you've known and loved and feel comfortable buying. We want to entice them into buying something ... a little more. And they get to make the choice, not us."
first let me say i'm happy about this news. definitely a step in the right direction. props to emi & apple!
however this quote has some pr spin to it... you could just strip the drm from the 99 cent tracks and offer the lower quality option as well, you know, "for those customers that are very price sensitive." - quazywabbit, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3wow, looks like i might be able to buy music online without going to the simi legal allofmp3.com. Honestly glad this happened, because I have no problems buying music online as long as its DRM free and high quality and I can get it right away, which is what getting music illegal gives you vs. legal music that gives you less than that which is illegal. at now now the legal and the illegal are on par with each other and that is a good start. Maybe they can also give us the liner sheets, the lyrics, etc on the legal ones as well so we get more than just downloading it illegally.
- randf, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3i stopped reading digg becuase too many whining posts from that ***** zdiggler. now after decades of being away from digg, I came back today and still more whining ***** zdiggler posts, it make me sick that I can't even sit on the toilet and squeeze out a big zdiggler.
- adc86, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5While I don't oppose your comment on HD video, I don't think we really need to go into the fact that cable cannot boot OS X. Study up on what the atv can do, and you'll see what I mean.
- Greyarea, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2It's a test, pure and simple: if EMI sell more DRM-less music than DRM'd music (despite it being more expensive for singles) then it sends a clear signal. If they don't, then expect to see the DRM-less tracks removed in say a year.
- Greyarea, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Nor me (in that it never actually got in my way) but I'd rather not have DRM than have it.
- opticrime, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2what i want to know is whether the EMI-owned/distroed labels' material will also be available through iTunes without DRM. who cares about coldplay. i want to know if this deal applies to the Mute catalogue.
- Lynxpro, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1
This was an awesome announcement and hopefully it'll shame Warner Music (remember kids, they are private now and controlled by clueless Edgar Bronfman and not the rest of TimeWarner who only owns a 20% stake in them) into moving towards announcing a similar deal with Apple's iTunes.
However, what really needs to be done is for EMI to withdraw from the RIAA (and other associated organizations outside the US). If EMI dropped the RIAA, they could cut their prices by 20 or 30 cents per song sold to get a competitive price advantage against their sucker competitors still clinging to the zombie corpse that is the RIAA.
I mean, what value is the RIAA to the grand scheme of things? Bad publicity? The Grammy Awards whose ratings continue to dwindle because Joe Public doesn't give a frak anymore about that bogus awards show? - joshpar, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I see... yes, we do agree!
And soon... so much easier to use legally anywhere. Finally. - Overlord, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4Still waiting for lossless quality (even at a premium price like this). As much as I hate DRM, I really don't care to buy anything from places like iTunes until I get the same quality I do when I buy the CD from a store. So this whole non-DRM higher quality version is the right step, but it lacks the full jump in my opinion.
- AltDelete, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"The fact that some will continue to disappoint us and continue to steal the music is inevitable."
Hear that? Every time you torrent someones discography, you disappoint Apple. So disappointed... - Lynxpro, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1
I wonder if the upgrade option will be available for songs acquired from the Pepsi bottle caps from years past... About 99% of my 300 songs bought through iTunes came from those promotions... - adc89, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Where can I find this cable of yours? I have never heard of such a thing, it sounds amazing.
- asjk, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I could be wrong but my thought is that the price differential is probably a compromise. We have all read past articles stating that Apple wanted to keep the price for itunes at $0.99 over the objection from the industry. Perhaps the agreement to drop DRM at Apple's request was countered by a fee increase to satisfy the record labels.
- CrimsonBlur, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3Apple has absolutely no obligation to ensure that you can sync anything with iTunes other than the iPod. It's not a monopoly, it's just... business. You can choose to buy DRM-free music through iTunes and then use any program you want to transfer those songs to your MP3 player if you don't have an iPod. No one is stopping you from doing that. The only reason the other stores aren't doing the exact same thing is because those companies don't also create the software to organize and transfer your music, and they don't have any hardware products either. They just sell you the songs and you choose what to do from there.
- manageMyRights, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3This news would've mattered in 1998 before Napster came out.
- sactodigg, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I don't think it distinguishes how you purchased your music.
- dignon, on 10/12/2007, -4/+4LOL - there's just no satisfying some people.
- LiamIsOnFire, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0The DRM didn't really annoy me anyway...
- ben1sm4, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1um, [inaudible]
- bovox, on 10/12/2007, -6/+5i think you're going to eventually have to get with the program and start buying lossy. today's announcement is the start of the end of music distribution via compact disc. eventually the infrastructure that produces the CD's will start to fade away, lowering the amount of CD's going to market, which in turn will raise the prices of CD's. it will come to the point where you'll have to decided if the very negligible difference between a $50 lossless album and a $10 lossy album can justify the huge price difference.
- omaryak, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2Grammar note: affect (v.) != effect (n. and sometimes v., but only to mean "put into effect," e.g. "effect change")
- manageMyRights, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1With QTfairUse you are just grabbing the un-encrypted song in memory before you actually play it. Its lossless.
Do you really want to give them another 30 cents for a song you already own? - billog, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0........
- ArnoldTPants, on 10/12/2007, -5/+2Alternative headline:
Jobs talks, Diggers jerk off. - birch25, on 10/12/2007, -8/+3schoate09, care to elaborate? EMI took a big step in the right direction...
- milomilomilo, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1Nice that they are on the "no drm" train.
What they really need to do is put out some HD video, than maybe they can justify selling you a 300 box for what a cable can do for 1/20 the price. - tinygibbles, on 10/12/2007, -7/+2OK, so you can now buy music from iTunes and play it on your el-crappo pmp. So the next question becomes, why can't I sync my SwimSong enc-z80i-ecs with iTunes? iMonopoly!!!
- MJ420, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1@Josh..I think we agree...Just saying that this particular DRM (Fairplay) will only work on iPod , and thereby...(Please note the "")
But yeah, easy to remove, no prob - and legal!!! - schoate09, on 10/12/2007, -9/+4Exactly burch, I'm saying, this is ***** the RIAA, who can't be happy. A step against the tyrants.
- txgentleman, on 10/12/2007, -8/+3How many times are we going to see this story posted to digg today
- MJ420, on 10/12/2007, -9/+4yeah, welll...99 cents a track wasn't gonna last forever. Inflation SUCKS...
But I look at it this way: I now pay a little extra for a better quality, but can get a 30 cents discount if I choose a DRM'ed track and thereby "promise" (X) to use an iPod :) - manageMyRights, on 10/12/2007, -8/+2I don't see why everyone is excited about this.
So now you can pay $1.30 for the privilege of having a song you can download for free, or even buy for $1 and just strip the DRM with QTfairUse.
DRM is provably impossible. EMI and Apple realize they have to drop it eventually. All they announced is a price raise on single songs to encourage people to buy albums. It's just part of their business model and not some altruistic anti-DRM stance. - ArnoldTPants, on 10/12/2007, -8/+2joshpar
"I'm just glad to see the bump in sound quality."
Why? You obviously have the ears of an old lady if you are transcoding your lossy music. It is good to see better sound quality for those of us with good hearing. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -11/+4Would Jobs say this at a press conference?
"Now again, you can burn a CD and read that CD back in and it takes off the DRM." - schoate09, on 10/12/2007, -16/+8***** the RIAA.
- marshall007, on 10/12/2007, -14/+6"...Steve Jobs announced that iTunes will soon begin selling DRM-free music tracks..."
Its about freakin time - zdiggler, on 10/12/2007, -11/+2I stopped reading digg becuase too many Apple stories, I came back today and still more apple stories, it make me sick that I can't even eat an apple or drink apple juice.
Browsing Digg on your phone just got easier with our enhancements to the 
© Digg Inc. 2009
— Content created and posted by Digg users is