It’s been reported today by various sources that EMI tracks for sale on the iTunes Music Store are going to become devoid of Digital Restrictions Management (DRM). Good news. Eric Bangeman from Ars Technica has this to say:

Apple and EMI announced today that the music label will begin selling all of its music through the iTunes Store, DRM-free. During a press conference in London this morning, EMI said that all of its unprotected tracks will be available worldwide from the iTunes Store starting in May for $1.29 and that customers will be able to upgrade their already-purchased EMI tracks for 30¢ if they so choose.

EMI and Apple said that the bit rate of EMI’s tracks will be bumped up as well. EMI’s catalog will now be available as 256kbps AAC files, upgraded from 128kbps…

…

It appears as if EMI and Apple are using the excuse of upgraded sound quality for the reason behind the individual track price bump, and not the lack of DRM.

I originally thought that the price increase was a little absurd just for getting a DRM-less song. I mean, why should you pay to “upgrade” your songs that you’ve already bought? Sure, losing the DRM makes it better than before, but you deserved that to begin with.

But then I was reminded by the updated Ars article that you do get a slight upgrade in AAC quality for the upgrade/new price you pay, which can be slightly reasonable. This really does seem to be a half-hearted attempt at getting people like me to completely condone this, but even so, I still think the buyers of rightfully purchased tracks should be able to obtain DRM-less versions for free.

Nonetheless, overall, this is good news, although it could be better, and hopefully, the other major labels watching closely will learn that this would actually good for both their sales and image. Improving said image in particular could really help their sales, actually, because people often dislike buying from evil empires that control all your rights.