News
EMI, Apple holding joint announcement tomorrow [updated]
EMI will reportedly hold a press event in London on Monday with Apple CEO Steve Jobs as a special guest. In an invite sent to select media today, EMI, which has released the Beatles records since 1962, said it was announcing an “exciting new digital offering” and that there will be a “special live performance” at the event by an unnamed artist or band. The event follows months of speculation that Apple’s iTunes Store would be the first to offer music from the Beatles online following an agreement between Apple and the Beatles’ Apple Corps record label.
Update: An EMI spokesman said this was not an April Fool’s joke.
Update #2: A Reuters source “familiar with the situation” said a Beatles deal would not be announced at the event. “There is no Beatles’ announcement,” the source said.
Update #3: The Wall Street Journal now reports: “In a major reversal of the music industry’s longstanding antipiracy strategy, EMI Group PLC is set to announce Monday that it plans to sell significant amounts of its catalog without anticopying software, according to people familiar with the matter. The London-based music company is to make its announcement in a press conference that will feature Apple Inc. Chief Executive Steve Jobs. EMI is to sell songs without the software—known as digital rights management, or DRM—through Apple’s iTunes Store and possibly through other online outlets, too.”
Next: EMI announces DRM-free, higher quality music on iTunes
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1
Hey, maybe they are announcing that the EMI catalog will be offered DRM free on iTunes?
Posted by wldkt619 on April 1, 2007 at 5:18 PM (PDT)
2
I bet it’s still the beatles thing… I don’t care what that one dude said.
Posted by brent on April 1, 2007 at 5:40 PM (PDT)
3
I really have a hard time seeing this happening.
But I still hope for it!!
Posted by jeremyjk1221 on April 1, 2007 at 7:45 PM (PDT)
4
Holy Schnikes! No DRM?
Posted by Galley in Greenville, SC on April 1, 2007 at 8:45 PM (PDT)
5
God… I was so excited, too :(
It’s not really that big of a deal for me because like I just download stuff and put it on my iPod. Whatever.
What artists are all on EMI?
Posted by brent on April 1, 2007 at 9:00 PM (PDT)
6
brent, you are part of the problem.
EMI is one of big four record companies. Huge slice of the market.
Posted by Japester on April 1, 2007 at 10:57 PM (PDT)
7
Uh, no Brent isn’t part of the problem. The guy who posts songs for download on Limewire is part of the problem. The guy who lets a friend rip copies of all his cds is part of the problem. The guy who purchases music and doesn’t share it is part of the solution.
Posted by Bart Lee on April 1, 2007 at 11:26 PM (PDT)
8
Apple is seriously going to convince the record labels to drop DRM just so they can allow people on your iPhone Book access to listen to what all their contacts are listening to by clicking play?
Posted by Jason Loop on April 2, 2007 at 1:57 AM (PDT)
9
i’ve not seen anything about this so far… but what would happen to our current drm’d files? will they release a tool to strip the drm from them, or can we download the emi ones again?
Posted by daniel n on April 2, 2007 at 3:09 AM (PDT)