Huh.

Hallelujah! Apple and EMI just announced that they will be selling DRM-free Apple songs through the iTunes Music Store. The songs will cost 130 percent of the price of the existing crippled songs, and you'll get to choose. Weirdly, Apple seems to have sold this move to EMI by saying that the DRM-free version will be a "premium" offering for audiophiles who want higher-quality music.

...

Jobs, who stressed the need for higher-quality music with the rise of high-fidelity home speaker systems, called EMI's move "the next big step forward in the digital-music revolution--the movement to completely interoperable DRM-free music." He added that "Apple will reach out to all the major and independent labels to give them the same opportunity" and suggested that half of iTunes' music tracks will be available in both DRM-loaded and DRM-free form by the end of 2007.

"EMI is pioneering something that I think is going to become very popular," Jobs said when asked if other music labels would likely add DRM-free music to their iTunes catalog.

"What we're adding is a choice--a new choice--and people can choose whichever one they want," Jobs said regarding Apple's decision to make available two levels of sound quality and DRM restriction. Nicoli cited internal EMI tests in which higher-quality, DRM-free songs outsold its lower-quality, copy-protected counterparts 10 to 1.

[link]

For me, paying extra would be worth it just for the better sound quality....

eta:

In iTunes, music will be sold in a 256 kilobit-per-second AAC format.

Awesome!

Why do life-sucking clouds always come from the west?

Err, whoops. Sorry, that was probably me.

Unless you're in California. Or, you know, Vancouver. But for everyone else, it was probably me.

That is Liese taking up Nilly's refrain.

Network outages have hit the midwest, or at least they have if you're me. This means I can't do any work, and instead get to stew in my own emo.

Last week here. Butterflies in my stomach. I have so much cleaning up and packing to do.

Like people are going to be whispering, "Sleeveless? In September? What WAS she thinking???"

There's a rule about sleeveless?

CV!! Hi!! My sister is getting married a week after you, but since she's in Vegas and not Maine, her sleeveless dress won't raise any eyebrows.

I'm waiting for the cross-stitch supplies I ordered to be delivered, so I can get started on her wedding present (one of those "United in Marriage [Man] and [Woman] on [Date]" things).

My one concern about September is that I already bought my dress, and it is very much a summer dress, not a fall dress.

Shrug. I mean if it bothers you that it's sleveless or if you think you'll be cold. I tend to think though that wedding and formal wear aren't terribly seasonal. They're not summer or winter; they're event.

That is Liese taking up Nilly's refrain.

Ha! Well, Nilly's busy with Passover, probably, so I live to serve.

eta: Although, man, I have been a little bundle of life-sucking cloud lately. I wouldn't be surprised if there was some leaking out and taking over the weather system.

Buddhism 2.0