It is rumoured that Apple is currently in negotiations with Universal, Warner and Sony BMG to secure the rights for its iTunes website to distribute music without DRM.
This could have very big implications for Apple and the music industry as a whole as DRM has always been one of the main talking points of downloadable music. The music industry has typically been pro DRM to stop piracy while the end user is normally anti DRM as it has a tendency to screw the user over by restricting what you can play the files on.
If iTunes manages to secure the deal it could mean that people without iPods will be able to download music from iTunes and play on whatever device they want.
Currently Play.com and 7Digital already offer DRM free music, and there are rumours that Sony may also be ditching DRM however iTunes has the largest catalogue of music and therefore it would be a significant deal.
Tags: Apple, DRM, iTunes
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DRM is definitely one of the most frustrating things that came bundled along with the mp3 revolution, however another gripe of mine is the quality of the file available to download. Most people seem to be happy with 192 mp3 / 128 aac, but if there’s even a tiny bit of audiophile in you, you’ll find these rates unacceptably low. Sites like Beatport enable you to download files encoded at various rates to match your requirements. The casual listener, for whom drive space is an issue, can download 192k mp3s while the fussier listener can download a full-quality WAV.
As broadband costs drop and bandwidth rises I would definitely like to see the option for full-quality downloads offered as standard
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