No Beatles announcement as EMI drops DRM

It was rumored to be the truth of Steve Jobs' visit as soon as all of the reports announcing The Beatles' entrance to the digital world were filed. Now it is the truth, but there was no Beatles announcement. It would certainly be easy to say that my last blog post was wrong, but I was basing my hopes on the incorrect reports of a multitude of sources.

Despite the lack of a Beatles press announcement, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) and EMI are working together to end EMI's use of DRM technology in their entire repertoire (see the article on NME). Obviously this is a big move, because now stores like iTunes can sell a major label's material that is equal in sharing capacity as the free sharing networks most labels and the RIAA deplore so much (perhaps that is why Jobs made the announcement with EMI in the UK, where EMI is based). NME also reports that the DRM-free music will be "superior quality downloads" which are interesting terms to use and may indicate something else on the horizon, like a remastered Beatles catalog. A technological "improvement" would not go beyond how innovative The Beatles as a unit have always been. They would have to try something, since The Beatles music has been kept out of the digital world for so long (thus making it somehow more advanced than the rest of the digital music available).