EMI launches DRM free downloads in Itunes

This is all over the tech sites, so you may have already heard, but I thought I would post anyway because it's such big news. EMI has announced that it will be offering its music downloads without DRM for sale on Itunes. This is a big step for the music industry, and one that is long overdue. The big music labels have always said they couldn't offer their music for sale without DRM, or people would copy it and share it with their friends. That whole argument was always a bit ridiculous, since all of the big labels already offer their music for sale in a DRM free format(think CDs). Furthermore, any music that is for sale can be found online for free without DRM in the illegal file sharing networks.
So adding DRM to the legit music they sell on Itunes never made a lot of sense. From the customers point of view, why would they pay for a crippled version of a song they can get uncrippled for free? The best thing for the music execs to do is make the legit versions better in some way than the illegal versions. DRM actually makes the legit versions worse. So this is a big step in the right direction. Hopefully the other labels will join EMI and also offer their songs without DRM.

Offical press release from EMI