tales of an ordinary girl

EMI has announced that they will drop DRM on select songs within its collection for purchase on iTunes.

The storied British music company -- pilloried for its conservatism by the Sex Pistols in the 1977 anti-label protest song EMI (Unlimited Edition) -- took a surprisingly liberal step on Monday, becoming the first major label to drop so-called digital rights management, or DRM, software that restricts music copying. The company is gambling that music lovers won’t mind paying a little more -- $1.29 versus .99 -- for hassle-free, higher quality music files.

The mp3s will also be higher quality (256 Kbps versus 128 Kbps), which pretty much makes the cost increase worth it to me. I'm hoping this paves the way for digital music to lose the restrictions of DRM. I'm definitely going to look into EMI's catalog. They are restricting some of their portfolio, including the Beatles. So this isn't as big of a step as it seems, but it's still positive.