The big news today is that EMI -- struggling in it's sales -- has made a deal with Apple to offer the bulk of its music library on the iTunes music store completely free of DRM and in a higher resolution format that gives users audio quality that is near the original recording quality. The higher quality non-DRM tracks are $1.29 song. Apple's iTunes store is offering customers who have purchased previous DRM, lower-quality versions of the tracks to upgrade at only 30¢ per song. Steve Jobs also stated that more than half the tracks on the iTunes Store would be available DRM-free by the end of the year.

MacDailyNews reports, "With DRM-free music from the EMI catalog, iTunes customers will have the ability to download tracks from their favorite EMI artists without any usage restrictions that limit the types of devices or number of computers that purchased songs can be played on. DRM-free songs purchased from the iTunes Store will be encoded in AAC at 256 kbps, twice the current bit rate of 128 kbps, and will play on all iPods, Mac® or Windows computers, Apple TVs and soon iPhones, as well as many other digital music players."

The BBC News writes, "Analyst Mark Mulligan, with Jupiter Research, said the announcement 'changes not just the rules of the game, but the game itself.' He said he expected the other record labels and online retailers to follow suit in due course. 'Other retail partners have to come to the party because they can't be seen to be offering an inferior product'"

In this Jupiter Research article, Micahel Gartenberg states, "It is a good step forward for consumers but more importantly, it showed Apple at the forefront of acting as 'champion' for consumer interests. After all, it wasn't Rob Glaser or Bill Gates up there with EMI."

Steve Jobs' open letter to the music industry on Apple's site called for the big music publishers to do away with DRM because 90% of the world's music is sold on CDs - which does not have DRM - and to penalize digital music downloads only frustrates customers and restricts their use of legally purchased music. Some anti-DRM websites bloggers -- whom we applaud their efforts otherwise -- were convinced that Apple wants the DRM to tie music solely to the iPod and therefore accused Steve Jobs of insincerely positioning himself (to defend against the Norwegian government's and the EU's demands for Apple to make its music more interoperable).

Of course, tunes purchased from the iTunes Store have never been tied solely to the iPod: customers can play them on a Mac or a PC, and on multiple computers and can burn them to a CD, which effectively removes the DRM and which allows the copying of the tracks to any other portable device.

Anyway, as far as the bloggers and some tech writers and suits who accused Steve Jobs of being disingenuous... this should quiet them. As Carl Howe wrote in this Blackfriar's Marketing article, "For Apple, it now has a deal that proves that Jobs' claim to oppose DRM is real and differentiates Apple's services significantly from the draconian DRM restrictions Microsoft places on its music and video. And without as many DRM shackles to enforce, Apple has the potential to further simplify the user experience for its customers."

Howe continues, "Most record labels will see this as a ground-breaking, dangerous experiment. But with [EMI's] CD sales down 20% this year, they had to do something. And kudos to Jobs and Apple for having the courage to call for the end of DRM and the business drive to make it happen. It's one small step for music, but one giant leap for consumer fair use rights in the digital age."

In this PC Magazine article, "Torgeir Waterhouse, senior advisor to the Norwegian Consumer Council, in an email. 'I applaud their move, and encourage all the other contenders in the digital music business to make the same important move.'"