This is not a hack of any sort: if you remember, EMI recently signed a contract with Apple to sell their entire catalogue in DRM-free format. Now, with the new version of iTunes, 7.2, it is actually possible to buy DRM-free music. The 256 Kbps AAC files can be downloaded at $1.29 per song, and upgrading previously bought music to DRM-free versions will, in most cases, cost 30 cents per songs, and $3 per album.

Ah, the sweet sound of victory. Although DRM is still infesting most of the music and video in major labels’ catalogue, this might be the defining moment when they all start switching to - definitely preferable for everyone - DRM-free alternatives. Let’s just hope that EMI does well (which it definitely should), and that others will follow suit.

I do have one beef with Apple’s press release on this, one that has been bugging me since the dawn of MP3. Pay attention to this bit:

“DRM-free music tracks featuring high quality 256 kbps AAC encoding for audio quality virtually indistinguishable from the original recordings”

(emphasis by me)

Erm, no. 256 Kbps is not virtually indistinguishable from 1440 Kbps. No MP3 or AAC (with lossy compression) will ever sound the same as the original recording - and, if you have a decent Hi-Fi, it won’t even be “virtually” the same. If 256 Kbps AAC is the same as the original CD, well then a DivX is the same as the original DVD. And a DVD is the same as a Blu-Ray. Hell, they’re all the same with that line of reasoning.

Yes, I know that most people listen to music on $5 computer speakers and that they can’t tell the difference. But if that’s the case, why progress at all? Why have better formats, like SACD?

If the record industry had spent some money on advertising the advantages of the CD sound over MP3 sound, instead of spending it on lawsuits, maybe the CD sales would be a couple of percentage points up by now. Instead, they’ve always insisted that it’s basically the same thing, and that’s what led to the whole lawsuit and DRM problem in the first place. I hope that someday they will learn one of the basics of economy (well, common sense actually): if you have a competitive advantage, you focus on that; you don’t try to convince people that an inferior product is the same as yours.