Apple launches iTunes Plus
Posted by Dennis Sellers 
May 30, 2007 at 5:13pm
Apple has launched iTunes Plus—DRM-free music tracks featuring 256 kbps AAC encoding for audio quality that Apple says is “virtually indistinguishable” from the original recordings. The cost: US$1.29 per song. iTunes Plus is launching with EMI’s digital catalog of recordings, including singles and albums from Coldplay, The Rolling Stones, Norah Jones, Frank Sinatra, Joss Stone, Pink Floyd, John Coltrane and more than a dozen of Paul McCartney’s classic albums available on iTunes for the first time.
iTunes will continue to offer its entire catalog, currently over five million songs, in the same versions as today—128 kbps AAC encoding with DRM—at the same price of 99 cents per song, alongside the higher quality iTunes Plus versions when available. In addition, iTunes customers can also upgrade their library of previously purchased EMI content to iTunes Plus tracks for 30 cents a song and $3 for most albums.
“Our customers are very excited about the freedom and amazing sound quality of iTunes Plus,” Apple CEO Steve Jobs said in a press announcement. “We expect more than half of the songs on iTunes will be offered in iTunes Plus versions by the end of this year.”
With the release of iTunes Plus, customers can now download tracks from EMI artists without limitations on the type of music player or number of computers that purchased songs can be played on. iTunes is also offering customers an one-click option to easily upgrade their library of previously purchased EMI content to the iTunes Plus versions.
EMI music videos are now also available in iTunes Plus versions with no change in price. iTunes Plus songs purchased from the iTunes Store will play on all iPods, Mac or Windows computers, widescreen TVs with Apple TV and soon iPhones, as well as many other digital music players.
“This is a tremendous milestone for digital music,” says Eric Nicoli, CEO of EMI Group. “Consumers are going to love listening to higher quality iTunes Plus tracks from their favorite EMI artists with no usage restrictions.”
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Dennis Sellers
Dennis has been a newspaper editor/reporter (seven years) and teacher (seven years). He has over 4,000 magazine, newspaper and online articles to his credit. He has also covered the Mac and tech industries for over a decade for such online publications as MacCentral, MacMinute and now MacsimumNews.
Joachim Says:
Is it possible to update only parts of my EMI-Collection? Or is this special offer only valid for a complete upgrade?
Posted on May 30, 2007