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Steve Jobs and EMI Press Conference - No More DRM?

Without meaning to raise any hopes, I was fortunate enough to have a meeting at university with 2 representatives from EMI and one from the IFPI last week. (They were holding a guest lecture and we had them for an hour to answer questions relating to our dissertations)

The final thing that was asked was "Do you see the DRM structure being the same in the market in 5 years time?"

The answer (from all 3 reps) was a categorical "no"... And the looks on the EMI peoples' faces was a slightly confusing one... We'd talked about iTunes for a while during our session, and mentioned the possibility of watermarking instead of locked files... This would certainly explain a lot...
 
Beatles Smeatles give us Movie's Apple!

Seems such a waste if Steve's flying all this way to be in London and not introduce Movies to the UK iTunes Store among other things.
 
Montserrat said:
With the DRM issue - they could have little DRM flags next to the tracks - kinda like the "Explicit" ones now. That would also put a bit of pressure on the DRM-insistent labels to change their tune. (No pun intended - honestly)
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I agree - I've never understood the "consistency" argument. Pricing, maybe, but this? If Apple's serious about pushing this they're likely going to have to do it for part of the catalog until others come along. So why aren't they already offering DRM-Less music for the Indies who are ok with it? (unless the labels have them roped into some contractual obligation.)

If this is EMI going DRM-less (which would be kind of a stretch), I wouldn't be surprised if Steve's "Thoughts on Music" were not the instigator of this, but him responding to rumblings from the labels. Then when they did do it, he could say - "see, that was my idea." A kind of preemptive strike, if you will.

In any case, it will be good news. Lossless AND DRM-less would be the real deal... Sooner or later folks, get it together...
 
CommodityFetish said:
If this is EMI going DRM-less (which would be kind of a stretch)
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Believe me, it's not as much of a stretch as many people think... They've been looking into alternative systems for quite a while now... It's just a matter of implementation from what I could gather...
 
Ghibli said:
Financially speaking, Apple could be buying EMI. Apple's market cap is about 20 times that of Emi...
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Let’s do the math...EMI world’s largest independent Music Company ;
Currently they’re saying Digital sales represents £74million revenue. EMI operating profit last year £250 million
Let’s say their full catalog on iTunes exclusively would represent 20% of sales and 20% of iTunes sales...
So that means 2 billion songs downloaded and accelerating - Apple get’s 400 million in revenue? and let’s say speculatively year on year growth achieves 2 billion sales a year next year....so let’s say 400milion a year...add that to the £250million EMI operation profit and you have a deal quite easily worth potentially £650million profit a year to Apple - and slightly more it opens the doors to other deals and other media company opportunities. They really may become the biggest digital media company in the world within 5 years!..
On that reckoning they should easily pay for the EMI deal within 4 years. Not bad going in this day! Buy a ‘company with your own money’ over 4 years!!
 
My guess is that this is just Beatles related. Remember they are not just releasing their digital catalogue, but all of the albums are supposed to be remastered (which personally I am really, really looking forward to).

As for DRM, it would be awesome if it was true. I would guess that they would only start with the Beatles, and then slowly roll out DRM-free to other artists if they deem it "successful".
 
I was always told it was bad luck to play an April Fools joke after 12 o'clock, and this announcement was well after that :)

For Steve to fly out to London specially would require some pretty big news...
 
Well I would just like to say a few things:
1) I don't really care since I remove the DRM from all my iTunes downloads anyway using QTFairuse.
2) I hope it is more than just no DRM. Hopefully they will also be announcing video downloads in other countries and maybe even HD downloads (now that the AppleTV is out and supports 720p).
 
StuPidQPid said:
For Steve to fly out to London specially would require some pretty big news...
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So that would mean Steve's boarding the plane just about...now!!

'Anything to declare Mr Jobs'

"no, just a couple of turtlenecks and an unlicensed iphone..."
 
hvfsl said:
Well I would just like to say a few things:
1) I don't really care since I remove the DRM from all my iTunes downloads anyway using QTFairuse.
2) I hope it is more than just no DRM. Hopefully they will also be announcing video downloads in other countries and maybe even HD downloads (now that the AppleTV is out and supports 720p).
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Why would Steve Jobs be meeting with EMI (music people) to announce movies??
 
Beatles Announcement, Paul McCartney, Yellow iPod, DRM

Here's my guess...

iPod pricing recently dropped in the UK. Beatles announcemnt screams for a thematic iPod. (They did one for Harry Potter for crying out loud. I like the books, but a thematic ipod????) I've heard rumors of a yellow (we all live in a yellow submarine) iPod for awhile on other sites.

Paul needs a little publicity with his ex-wife on Dancing with the Stars, so I'm guessing he's the artist. An unplugged set.

Beatles on itunes. (ties in with ATV)

A fun day.
 
It's not DRM

It's not DRM. Some labels have asked Apple not to sell their music with DRM and Apple has refused. It's almost certain Apple has contracts with the majors that indicate that all their music must be sold with DRM, not just music from those specific publishers, so the idea that one major would suddenly have its music DRM free and not the other three strikes me as completely improbable.

The press, by and large, are reporting that this is actually about The Beatles. I think that's infinitely more likely.
 
I sure hope they go for an audio watermarking system. It would definitely put a halt to any casual copying as the lawyers would have proof who leaked the songs on the internet and they could sue them for it. At the same time, people on all platforms could be free to use the songs within the limits of fair use in their personal "home" movies and what not.

No DRM is going to stop determined pirates but watermarking will stop them in their tracks.
 
hvfsl said:
1) I don't really care since I remove the DRM from all my iTunes downloads anyway using QTFairuse.
Click to expand...

I have just done a bit of research on QTFairuse, but couldn't find any information about what the end product is. Basically, does it make a new audio file of the song you are playing (without the DRM)?
 
Interesting, this would remove those niggling doubts whenever I buy iTS music. I wonder if there might be any retroactive DRM removers for the EMI songs I already own?
 
I hope it's the Beatles!

So we can get that out of the way and have something important to talk about when rumors surface. :rolleyes:

I mean, really...is the market for the Beatles really that big? Some people make it sound like 2/3 of iTunes users are clamoring to buy the Beatles Definitive Collection or something. I don't personally know anyone who listens to the Beatles, but hey, I'm a freak. No, really. I'm listening to the soundtrack from The Journeyman Project right now.

[edit] "Tricky"? I mean... Well, all right...
 
liketom said:
Beatles Smeatles give us Movie's Apple!

Seems such a waste if Steve's flying all this way to be in London and not introduce Movies to the UK iTunes Store among other things.
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Chris Bangle said:
exactly my point. maybe not movies but hopefully tv shows
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StuPidQPid said:
I was always told it was bad luck to play an April Fools joke after 12 o'clock, and this announcement was well after that :)

For Steve to fly out to London specially would require some pretty big news...
Click to expand...


Get real people.This announcement is an EMI announcement with Steve Jobs as a special guest.This NOT a Stevenote.
 
winstano said:
Why would Steve Jobs be meeting with EMI (music people) to announce movies??
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Who says they can't announce something to do with EMI and videos in other countries at the same event?

Just like when Motorola showed off their iTunes phone and Apple showed off the Nano.

xJulianx said:
I have just done a bit of research on QTFairuse, but couldn't find any information about what the end product is. Basically, does it make a new audio file of the song you are playing (without the DRM)?
Click to expand...
Basically, yes. Plus it does it in such a way that there isn't any loss in audio quality.
 
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