For starters, NASA: You got the choice of the entire Beatles catalog, and you pick a song only because it contains a relevant metaphor? I mean, have you ever listened to Revolver? Wait, actually, you clearly must've, since Paul McCartney performed "Good Day Sunshine" in Nov. 2005 for the astronauts aboard the International Space Station. If you're aiming at aliens, why not choose something a little less intelligible, like "Dig a Pony," "Come Together" or "Tomorrow Never Knows." If those weren't written for space aliens, I don't know what.

Next on my shitlist: EMI and Apple Corp Update: and Michael Jackson too. WTF???? I've been a lifelong fan of your stupid Fab Four, but you're giving six billion purple globules from the Crab Nebula a shot at digitally retrieving The Beatles before I get one single measly 99-cent download? How is that fair? (Of course, the complete Beatles catalog is already on my iPod, but still!)

And finally, a message to the Crab people: Don't trust these downloads. You'll see the file streaming into your antenna array and you'll be like, "Sweet! Free music!" But then you open the file, and you get this message on your Crab Nebula equivalent of Windows Media Player 11, saying that in order to enjoy this track, you need to get authorization from a central server. You click okay, and the message has to travel back to earth, taking another 50,000 years or so. Which may seem worth the wait, only the track itself expires in 30 days.

So good luck to you, purple Crab people. And GFY, recording industry. You have dissed me for the last time. [Network World via The Inquirer]

Amazon MP3 has the only digital music catalogue that offers DRM-free tunes from all four major labels, with around 3.3 million tracks in the library, they are packing some weight. If that fact doesn't have Apple quaking in their boots, the competitive pricing should. We couldn't care less how Amazon and Apple get down and dirty, but as they are bound to be set for a fight, teeth gnashing and all, it can only mean good things for customers. DRM-free music will have a bigger global presence, and that should solidify its worth in the consumer market. Also, the ensuing price war is not going to be too bad either. After all, iTunes surely cannot keep their offerings priced above the competition, whilst simultaneously offering DRM gimped and comparatively expensive ($1.29), DRM-free tracks. It's about to get interesting—watch this space. [Amazon]

Monday, in fact, is the day the service goes live, and we cannot hold our wee we're so excited. Initially, only Windows Vista and XP will be supported, but the Macboys and girls see some action on March 18th.

The system will work by tracking all downloads, royalties will then be issued accordingly. It isn't too clear how that revenue will be generated, but expect some anal advertising to bombard a PC near you if you do give it a whirl. Still, we can't help our cynical judgement chiming in—how did Noah get two of every species on a wooden boat? He didn't—do you know what I mean? Nevertheless, we wait and hope for a legal, free, P2P music service, but we think eternal world peace is a little more likely by Monday. [Boy Genius Reports]

EMI is a business just like any other company, and its new owners must have realized that spending $132 million a year to alienate their customers was providing them with a really poor return on investment. I mean, it's just not good business sense. Will any of the other major labels follow suit? Time will tell, but if they do you can pretty much wave goodbye to the era of the RIAA having influence. A bittersweet victory it would be, as I'd need to find something else to bitch and moan about every day, but it'd be worth it in the end. [Ars Technica]

In case you've been living under a rock for the past 14 years and don't own a single Radiohead release, now's your chance to get on board. The first way to buy it is in a set with all seven discs in digipacks with original artwork. That'll set you back £40, or about $83, which isn't much of a discount (thanks mostly to the insane exchange rate).

The next option is to buy all seven albums as digital downloads, all encoded as 320kbps MP3s, along with digital artwork. The price for this is an unforgiving £35, or $73.

The last option is probably the most appealing to Radiohead die-hards, as it comes with a limited-edition USB drive. The 4GB drive will come loaded with the seven albums encoded as uncompressed WAV files as well as digital artwork. The price for this "strictly limited edition" piece of hardware? £80, or $167. Yes, $167 for a thumb drive loaded up with WAV files.

So, how many of these sets do you think EMI will sell? You've got to appreciate the choice of encoding options, but those prices are beyond insane. And the real problem is that only the most devoted of fans would even consider spending this kind of coin on RH materials, and they obviously own all the back catalog already. So, uh, what the hell, EMI? [Product Page]

The thing is, iTunes is kind of a crappy "control" in this little experiment if the only variable being tested is the presence of DRM, because its sales dwarf every other store in the test. Moreover, Universal's buying AdWords to drive traffic to the DRM-free downloads, throwing in yet another variable. It doesn't line up very well with the scientific method I was taught in high school.

Reading between the lines, it seems clear that what's really being tested isn't DRM-free downloads, it's the non-iTunes market—is it possible to really move digital music without the iTunes/iPod machine?—and Universal's ability to flex its atrophying muscles.

EMI's move to DRM-free tracks months ago was dismissed by some as a risky and desperate play, a sign of its weakness as the smallest label of the Big Four—its shareholders recently approved its sale to a private equity firm. Universal, on the other hand, is the biggest label in the world.

That doesn't mean it's not a sign of weakness. iTunes isn't the only store that's not a part of the test: None of the participating outlets have hardware linked to it. If iTunes was the only control here, why isn't Zune a part of the game? Where's eMusic for that matter? Universal looks like its angling to promiscuitize the digital music market—make the same music easily available from many sources that will play on any device—in order to make labels still matter, and stave off its own impending irrelevance.

The broader, more positive take on the move—which isn't necessarily divorced from the other one—is that the industry is beginning to realize they don't have a choice: DRM-free is the only way to really spur the digital music market, and ultimately for them to even hope to generate the kind of revenue they used to. This rosier outlook would include, in our opinion, Universal selling DRM-free music on iTunes at some point in the future.

Will the two remaining Big Four labels follow suit and explore DRM-free downloads? Undoubtedly, this as much of a test for Warner and Sony BMG as it is for Universal. If Universal pulls the plug in January (and Sony and Warner will know before we do), probably not, unless they're looking for an edge against the competition. If this test becomes policy, it seems safe to say that left with little choice, the others will fall in line in short order.

From there, the real question is the iTunes question: What are the labels going to do about it?

Universal's full press release:

CHART-TOPPING HITS MARK OPEN-MP3 TEST BY UNIVERSAL MUSIC GROUP (UMG)
MARKET LEADER REMOVES DRM PROTECTION IN THOUSANDS OF TITLES DURING TEST
PARTICIPANTS INCLUDE GOOGLE, BEST BUY, RHAPSODY, AMAZON.COM, WAL-MART & PURETRACKS, AMONG OTHERS

New York, New York...Universal Music Group (UMG), the world's leading music company, today announced that it is continuing the testing of digital sales of tracks and albums without digital rights management (DRM) by making thousands of its albums and tracks available from its digital repertoire in MP3 form without DRM enabling, for a limited time.

"Universal Music Group is committed to exploring new ways to expand the availability of our artists' music online, while offering consumers the most choice in how and where they purchase and enjoy our music," stated Doug Morris, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of UMG. "This test, which is a continuation of a series of tests that UMG began conducting earlier in the year, will provide valuable insights into the implications of selling our music in an open format."

As UMG's most comprehensive and extensive testing to date, the experiment will run from August to January and analyze such factors as consumer demand, price sensitivity and piracy in regards to the availability of open MP3s.

MP3s can be played on a full range of devices including dedicated MP3 players, mobile phones and the iPod. Regardless of the outcome of these tests, UMG will continue to support innovative digital models such as subscription and ad-supported services which rely on DRM as an enabling technology.

Albums and tracks that will be available during this test run the gamut from artists such as Amy Winehouse, Fall Out Boy, 50 Cent, Black Eyed Peas, Daddy Yankee, Mika, The Pussycat Dolls, Gwen Stefani, Maroon 5, Dr. Dre, Don Omar, Sting, Sugarland, Diana Krall, Paulina Rubio, Shania Twain, Nelly and Prince, to Bing Crosby, Elvis Costello, Reba McEntire, Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie, Stevie Wonder, Johnny Cash and Patsy Cline, among many others.

Participants including Google, Wal-Mart, Best Buy Digital Music Store, Rhapsody, Transworld, Passalong Networks, Amazon.com and Puretracks, will offer downloads to consumers in the DRM-free audio format of their choice in a variety of bit rates. For the most part, the DRM free downloads will be offered at standard wholesale prices.

As part of this test, Universal will also be driving traffic to DRM-free downloads using Google's AdWords(tm) advertising program. Google ads will connect consumers directly to digital retailer gBox, Inc. (www.gbox.com) download store making the search and buying process as simple as possible. Because many consumers are searching for music and music related news and information online, Google is a powerful way to drive consumers to this test.

In addition, DRM-free downloads will also be available through artist and label-branded websites, including will.i.am.com, sum41.com, evefans.com, www.common-music.com, ryan-adams.com, blaqkaudio.com, dianakrall.com, sectionquartet.com, as well as defjam.com, islandrecords.com and classicsandjazz.co.uk, among many others.

Meanwhile, Warner Music, which has an agreement with YouTube, announced that it would begin to share music videos for free on ad-supported sites based around artist. OK, so like, how is that different than the promotional artist sites that already have videos? Oh, right, ads. Thanks WMG!!

You know all of this business wheeling and dealing aside, I'm just glad we might actually be entering a new golden age of the music video. I mean, nothing will ever touch A-Ha's "Take On Me" or Jamiroquai's "Virtual Insanity," but do I want my new music rendererd visually for better receptivity into the assorted memory banks of my brain? Yes, I do. – Wilson Rothman

YouTube signs broad licensing pact with EMI [Reuters]
Warner to put ad-supported video archive online [Reuters]

Although there aren't any DRM-free songs on there now at midnight, Apple will probably make an official announcement in the morning and release the tracks then. One good note from the help file shows that if you've already purchased songs from the iTunes store, you can upgrade those to the respective DRM-free version as well. Stay tuned later today for more info. – Jason Chen

Apple Releases iTunes 7.2, Launches iTunes Plus (DRM Free) [MacRumors]

While previous statements seemed to indicate a gradual release starting this month, the kinda-but-not-really late release is in part due to a desire to dump the whole catalog at once.

Also partly to blame is EMI's recent wheelings and dealings with Amazon, which may have kept Apple and EMI from finalizing their deal until last week. In sum, keep your eyes open but hopes only moderately skyward on Tuesday. They'll get there eventually. – Matt Buchanan

DRM-free iTunes set this week? [Electronista]

The MP3-only move is an obvious swipe at Apple, who is offering their DRM-free tracks in AAC. (Jeff Bezos: "Our MP3-only strategy means all the music that customers buy on Amazon is always DRM-free and plays on any device.")

Of course, a real swipe at Apple would be to offer the tracks for 99 cents, undercutting them by roughly 25 percent, but no price or launch date was mentioned by Amazon. Of course, you'll know when we do. Regardless, the music download market's starting to get real interesting.

Let's just hope Amazon has the balls to take it up a notch. Or rather, down a notch. 99 cents. Come on, guys, make yourselves a real competitor against iTunes and kick-start the market. The sooner we get this going, the better for all of us: consumers, distributors, the industry, and the artists.

Update: According to a rep, neither pricing nor other labels will be announced until launch "later this year." Looks like an end-of-the-month, surprise head-to-head showdown with Apple is out of the cards, so Amazon better have something slammin' up their sleeve with the lead time iTunes is going to have on them. – Matt Buchanan

Press Release [Amazon]

Well… great? Not that there's anything wrong with Sir Paul, but Wings was no Beatles. But if he's on board with the digital wave for his solo material, one would think there's not much left stopping The Beatles' music from following in a timely manner. Right guys? Right? –Adam Frucci

One unnamed record exec actually admits that "EMI struck a deal that puts all of us at a disadvantage." More interesting is the exec's subsequent nugget that "If Universal goes, then everyone has to follow." Reuters hints that Universal is in fact contemplating a DRM-free partnership with...Amazon. The labels are clearly wary of the monster 100 million-selling iPod/iTunes machine.

Given that Apple has the upper hand here—one that seems to be getting stronger—and will probably be taking from the labels at the negotiating table rather than giving, why has "there has even been talk of [the labels] getting a cut of sales of iPods themselves"? It's never going to happen. Ever.

If "privately, executives accept that following EMI's move it is only a matter of time" why not go ahead and make the move and start chalking up more sales online now, rather than later? It would be in their best interest to take the initiative while they still wield a fair amount of bargaining power—Steve smells weakness, and if they crawl back later, he's going to take them for the ride of their lives. – Matt Buchanan

Apple seen having upper hand in music negotiations [Reuters via Mac Rumors]

The other companies have already started talking with Apple or are about to, and they're also leaning on Apple to introduce such a model, believing it would "increase consumption of music," as well as entitle them to a monthly royalty check much bigger than the ones they collect from other services with subscriptions, given iTunes' 85 percent market share.

While Jobs could rally public support last time (and probably again) to shoot down the variable pricing structure—who wants higher prices?—it'll be interesting to see what kind of argument he could muster against a subscription model, if in fact, Apple still isn't interested in it. What do you guys think? – Matt Buchanan

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Somehow this half-escaped us in March, but we can't resist talking about it now: apparently, Dave Hughes thinks Steve Jobs is a "hypocrite."

And yes, while we agree that His Steveness is wrong when he says that movies should be exempt of the new DRM-free spirit in the iTunes Music Store, it sure takes some bollocks for the RIAA Senior VP of Technology to throw the first stone and call him a "hypocrite." More details about Dave's farce right after the jump.

It all happened in a Q&A at Arizona State University, where he also spilt the beans on Jobs saying that Apple would only open FairPlay to other stores when they had less than 50% market share. Did he know at the time that EMI and Apple were going to send FairPlay to hell while the later was still commanding 75% of the online music sales business?

We will never know, but now it's time to put the sour grapes aside, Dave, and get on with the program. Maybe if your pals in the music industry follow EMI you'll be able to pressure The Steve and his MPAA mates into taking DRM off movies as well. Look at it as a great opportunity to demonstrate he's really the hypocrite you think he is.

As a side note, Dave also took some time to blame customers for Britney Spears, charged against those who "steal content" and finally laughed at Consumerist readers' "Worst Company In America" title. Probably with a maniac rictus too, while caressing his cat paw. –Jesus Diaz

P.S. And yes, I know, it's Giz's third Python reference today. Ni!

The RIAA Came to ASU Today [via Consumerist via The Inquirer]

I know it would be cool to be able to buy their music online and everything, but at this point who doesn't have any of The Beatles' music already? Who's clamoring for this? Is anyone holding out, thinking "I've heard a lot about this 'Beatles' band, but I think I'll wait 'til they're on iTunes to check them out and see what the fuss is about."? –Adam Frucci

Reuters [via MacNN]

Hedging his statement, he says:

But a listener's ability to distinguish sound quality depends on many factors, like age, hearing ability, and attentiveness, not to mention the style of music and where one listens to it. For example, music with delicate timbres—a string quartet, say—might sound noticeably choppy at lower bitrates, whereas compressing an AC/DC song might not be so bad.

Are iTunes' Premium Downloads Worth It? [Slate]

There's no date or pricing set for when the big M is going to start doing this, but it will be interesting to see if they do the same higher bitrate/premium price baloney that Apple did or just replace the DRM'd versions with DRM-free versions and charge the same amount. In any case, it's pretty hot that the no-DRM movement actually has a bandwagon and major companies are actually jumping on it. Somebody pinch me! –Adam Frucci

CNET [via MobileMag]

For its part, Apple's saying that they too, wants identical pricing across the continent from the very bottom of its heart, but those damn record labels won't let them. Where have we heard that before?

To cut them some slack though, as Ars does, dealing with legal labyrinths that cut across national borders undoubtedly causes quite the headache, and practically it would probably be easier for Apple to just offer one store for everyone, regardless of location, simply slightly localized. So we'll take Apple at their word, for now. – Matt Buchanan

EU investigating Apple, Big Four labels over country-specific pricing [Ars Technica]

Goodbye Letter I—We discuss the reasons why the letter "i" must leave the tech world, and what letter should replace it.

Prada, Cheaper Than Yo' Momma—The LG Prada knows it needs something else to compete with the iPhone (There's that "i" again), so what did LG do? They made it completely free, with a 1.5-year contract.

EMI Sends Their Music Out Naked—And as you have probably heard by now, Stevie Jobs & Eric Nicoli announced that they will start selling their music catalog sans-DRM. Adam Frucci will walk you through how this fits in with last month's RIAA boycott.

Epson $25/inch 1080p Projector—And we're speaking relatively here, but Epson has a sweet price on a projector. $3,000 for a 1080p projector with a great contrast ratio, HDMI, and can scale to 120 inches.– Ben Longo

•EMI approached Apple about DRM free tracks, not the other way around.
•EMI is cool with any other music store doing DRM-free tracks. This is not an iTunes exclusive.
•Those stores can put songs in any format they want. The iTunes premium price and AAC 256 kbps format are Apple's Marketing decision.
•One underpublicized aspect of this deal is that full albums will cost the same. That means that while LCD Soundsystem's North American Scum will cost more than a DRM'd version, the full album, Sound of Silver, that it came from will cost the same either way. Combine that with the ability to upgrade tracks into full albums, and DRM'd songs into free tracks eases the stinging a bit.
•EMI made this move based on research that showed consumers want DRM-free tracks.
•They're doing this to get a bigger stake in online music, believing that even though CDs are 90% of their sales, those figures will shrink or stay flat. They're projecting that online sales should rise to to 25% of their sales by 2010.
•That includes music sales on cellphones. That's 500-million capable handsets, worldwide, by end of this year.
•The DRM-free tracks should, they believe improve sales: Even as piracy gets easier, so does the ability to play songs on any MP3 player available. (That is, once some other music store releases EMI tracks on MP3.)
•Although Jobs says, "We expect to offer more than half of the songs on iTunes in DRM-free versions by the end of this year.", EMI says the first of the new tracks will be on sale in May.
•EMI won't disavow RIAA lawsuits, however.

What this means is that Apple and Steve Jobs, by being the first to take up EMI on their offer, are great supporters in this transformation of how music is sold. But they aren't leaders. I think they can do more. Drop the DRM'd versions of iTunes songs entirely. And then get to using your keynote charm to change the rest of the entertainment industry.

Just use that mojo you steamrolled Cisco with during iPhone trademark discussions. Get all the music studios to change their mind, based on the eventual success of the EMI move. And while we're asking, let's do the same for video. Steve, we know you wouldn't let your +4 Billion dollar majority stake in Disney get in the way of doing the right thing at its sub labels like Hollywood Records, Lyric Street Records, Mammoth Records, Walt Disney Records, etc. After all, reasonable DRM inside of iTunes for both music and video are part of the user experience. And we know you're an uncompromising guy on that front. Right? –Adam Frucci and Brian Lam

Currently, Microsoft, Nokia, Sandisk (the e200 line) and Sony already support AAC playback on their DAPs. However, Sandisk, Creative, Toshiba, Cowon, Philips and others will leave you SOL until they release firmware patches. But don't worry, they will. There's sure to be tons of firmware patches on the way for any player that can't play unencrypted AAC files; it just might take some patience. Keep your eyes peeled, and make sure your player can handle AAC's before taking the plunge into legal DRM-free music downloading goodness. –Adam Frucci

Will Your MP3 Player Support Apple/EMI's AAC Files? [Gadget Lab]

So how does this affect our movement against the RIAA? On the one hand, EMI is still a member of the RIAA and the RIAA is still suing college students and invalids. On the other hand, this is a huge test of the DRM-free music market, and it's one of the most important times to buy music in years.

Like we said when we started this boycott, money talks. If you like something or you don't like something, vote with your wallet. It's a two-way street; while not buying music from the RIAA when you don't like their practices is important, it's equally important to show support when they get something right.

So we say go out there and buy DRM-free music from iTunes. Is it perfect? No. It could be Lossless and it could be the same price as DRM'd tunes, and we sure would like to see those lawsuits stop. But this is a monumental step, and if it's successful we'll certainly see other major labels following suit by releasing their catalogs without DRM. If the demand is there, the supply will arrive in due time.

We sent a message last month by letting the major labels know that we won't give them money for damaged goods. Now that they've, shockingly enough, listened, it's time for us to uphold our end of the bargain. You clamored for legal, DRM-free music? You got it. Now go get it. –Adam Frucci

When asked if the Beatles tracks are going to be online, Apple's Steve Jobs, who was also speaking at the press event, answered, "I want to know that, too." Jobs did seem hopeful that this DRM-free concept would spread to other labels beyond just EMI, saying that EMI is pioneering a concept that will probably become very popular. He added that he couldn't comment on the behind-the scenes discussions, and cited Sony's disastrous experience when it tried placing DRM on its CDs. What did Jobs say about DRM on video and movies?

When asked if DRM would be removed from videos and movies from Disney—the company in which Jobs is a major stockholder—Jobs replied that he saw video and music as two different things, where video was never distributed DRM-free as 90 percent of music has in the past.

EMI said it was going to allow all retailers to sell the DRM-free tunes, and they will be available in AAC, WMA and MP3 formats. ITunes will offer the EMI DRM-free catalog as premium downloads, with twice the sound quality of currently available AACs, and they'll cost $1.29 per song rather than the $.99 per song from the EMI catalog that will still be sold with DRM. – Charlie White

Press Release [EMI]

If this is true—EMI being wishy-washy doesn't add to the cred factor but we're going with it—this is huge, and quite frankly, awesome. Sure, you could chalk it up to mounting EU pressure, Jobs' cry heard round the world, or the crushing impingement of reality, but we totally think our RIAA boycott just worked. One down, three to go. – Matt Buchanan

[via Idolator]
Shackles image via Flickr

Oh, when will the music companies learn? If you guys keep insisting on putting DRM on your files, I'll have to keep finding alternative methods to obtain my music fix. – Nicholas Deleon

Image happily taken from Voidstar

EMI: DRM stays [The Register]

The Times makes it clear, though, that we shouldn't start soiling our sweats for la revolucion just yet, as it's "far from clear that the company... will reach a deal." And in iTunes' case, it's been pointed out that even tracks which are DRM-less in other stores are locked up tight with FairPlay, so they still might take the all-or-nothing approach, even if EMI does come out for truth, freedom, and the American Way. – Matt Buchanan

EMI May Sell Recordings Online With No Anti-Copying Software [NYT]

EMI reviewing CD content protection technology [Reuters]

EMI 911 rCard [via Oh!Gizmo]

As it is, now that iTunes and other means of obtaining music are now quite popular with all the cool kids, where do you stand on the status of the CD?

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Feel free to vent against the RIAA and other New World Order institutions in the comments box. As for me, I still listen to vinyl. (How else could I get the latest trance beats?) – Nicholas Deleon

EMI Music CEO says the CD is 'dead' [MarketWatch]

Music trial taps into Bluetooth [BBC News]