After much speculation, The Beatles music is not going to be available on iTunes, at least not in the short-term.
Rumors spread quickly late last week that a Beatles/iTunes collaboration was imminent, following the announcement that Apple grand poobah Steve Jobs was to told a joint press conference in London today with EMI Records chief Eric Nicoli.The conference also included a performance from Damon Albarn's The Good The Bad and The Queen.
Apple promised a major announcement. Unfortunately, the announcement wasn't as major as many had hoped and The Beatles shall remain out of the clutches of digital downloads for the time being.
However, Jobs news was that iTunes will offer EMI Music in a new DRM-free format and at a higher bit rate of 256kbps.
To get the upgrade, buyers will pay 30 cents more per track (US).
The decision makes EMI the first major label to break away from the industry standard and offer DRM-free music. For the consumer, this means that once you have purchased a track, you will be able to transfer it to multiple computers and multiple devices.
In his recent keynote address at SxSW just weeks ago, Talking Heads frontman David Byrne. Byrne called DRM "silly" and added "DRM will go away and people will start to buy downloads. I've bought about 3 tunes from iTunes because it pisses me off".
So, the bottom line is still no Beatles on iTunes but you will soon get a better quality Rolling Stones download.
