News: DRM-Free Music Coming to iTunes

It was bound to happen, but we didn’t think it would be so soon. Today, Apple and EMI announced, that EMI tracks will be sold free of Digital Rights Management restrictions starting in May. The tracks will be sold for $1.29 and will be higher-quality 256kbps AAC files, rather than the 128kbps files. Users can “upgrade” their current EMI tracks for 30¢ a song. The 99¢ tracks will still be sold with the DRM restrictions.

This also means that said tracks will be able to be played on other devices that are AAC-compatible, as well as the current crop of Macs, PCs with iTunes, iPods, iPhones, and Apple TVs.

Also, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said he expects other major record labels to follow EMI’s lead:

“We think our customers are going to love this, and we expect to offer more than half of the songs on iTunes in DRM-free versions by the end of this year.”