News
EMI offers first ‘premium’ DRM-free album in MP3
By Charles Starrett
Contributing Editor
Published: Thursday, April 5, 2007
News Categories: Digital Media
EMI has announced that its first “premium” DRM-free album, the self-titled The Good, The Bad, and the Queen, is now available in 320 kbps MP3 format from the band’s store, which is powered by UK-based digital media delivery company 7digital. The Good, The Bad, and the Queen is headed by Damon Albarn, who is also frontman of Blur, and Gorillaz, and was present at the EMI/Apple announcement on Monday. EMI has offered DRM-free tracks in the past, but not at the higher bitrate used for this release. EMI’s DRM-free offerings won’t be available on the iTunes Store until May, where they will be offered in 256 kbps AAC format, offering roughly the same quality as this 320 kbps MP3 format release.
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1
Shoot. I *just* bought this album on iTunes. I hope I can upgrade it when iTunes starts offering the DRM free version.
Posted by Phil on April 5, 2007 at 2:17 PM (PST)
2
That’s $15.77 USD for MP3s. Too expensive by far.
Posted by malren on April 5, 2007 at 2:52 PM (PST)
3
And so the fall of DRM begins?...
Posted by Bob Levens in UK on April 5, 2007 at 6:55 PM (PST)
4
$15.77?! Why not just buy the actual CD for the same price and get more priveleges? That would be a better choice no doubt. The only good thing is that DRM is finally leaving part of our music.
Posted by Tsubasa on April 5, 2007 at 8:47 PM (PST)
5
totally agree with tsubasa - until internet retailers start shipping lossless flacs with album art I’ll be sticking with CDs.
Posted by kefa on April 6, 2007 at 5:26 AM (PST)