The first DRM-free album from EMI was released on Monday and it was not a new album. The album chosen to herald in the new age of music downloads was Damon Albarn's The Good, the Bad and the Queen, originally released in January. Additionally, it is not even available as a DRM-free album on Apple Inc.'s (NASDAQ:AAPL) iTunes, instead the band's own website in association with 7digital.com is offering the 320 kbps tracks from the album. I blogged about how the band had performed a short set at the announcement on Monday before, but now it seems (or did seem) that the band would be the first to enter the DRM-free world fully (I had previously thought the band's endeavors were limited to the new single "Green Fields" - which I downloaded after the announcement).

I can't help but wonder if any change has been noticed with the announcement and the release of this album as the first DRM-free. Almost three months after it was initially released, I know that I already have it, and will not purchase a second copy (even if the quality is high). It seems that for the first truly "new" album released under the DRM-free agreement, we will have to wait until May when the entire system becomes operational.

On Sunday I had blogged that Apple's shares were down .84 points on last Friday, closing slightly above 92.9. Yesterday the stock rose another .41 points for the week, bringing the shares to 94.68, an almost 2 point jump. It's probably to early to say whether the DRM-free announcement has made any impact, but with shares rising over a week, some improvement should be connected.