Floppyhead – Digital Media and Streaming

Apple and EMI have agreed to release the studio’s catalog of music DRM-free and at a higher bit-rate of 256 kbps (iTunes typically offers songs encoded at 128 kbps). This is a good first step for Apple in creating a more consumer friendly music store. From the iTunes store FAQ:

iTunes Plus refers to songs and music videos available in our highest-quality 256 kbps AAC encoding (twice the current bit rate of 128 kbps), and without digital rights management (DRM). There are no burn limits and iTunes Plus music will play on all iPods, Mac or Windows computers, Apple TVs, and many other digital music players.

The main problem with iTunes Plus is that there is a $0.30 premium per song to have it DRM-free without any restrictions. However, iTunes Plus albums are generally available at the same price as DRM-protected versions of the albums (typically $10). For less than the price of 8 iTunes Plus songs, you can purchase the whole album.

I have never purchased a song from iTunes, mainly because I use J-River Media Center to operate my media server. ITunes Plus will allow me to buy songs from Apple and use them on that server.