>> BBC News: EMI takes locks off music tracks
The announcement that EMI Music is to start selling music downloads without DRM (or digital rights management) is an exciting development for the legal downloads market. Until now most legal downloads have used a restricted file format which ties you to a particular type of portable player. EMI's move will ultimately make their catalogue available to a range of download sites in a choice of file formats. Apple's iTunes store will be first to offer DRM-free downloads, but their files will continue to be offered in AAC format - which is compatible with iPods, but currently not supported by many rival portable players. Hopefully this will be the first step towards sites offering downloads in mp3 format which is compatible with all computers and portable players.
See also:
>> iTunes Music Store
>> EMI Music launches DRM-free superior sound quality downloads
>> BBC News: What is DRM?
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