Filed under: Portable Audio

Looks like El Jobso is coming out of his busy, busy office in Cupertino to, of all things, present "exciting new digital offering" at an EMI media event in London. Now, EMI is, as many know, where much of The Beatles catalogue resides, and none of that music has ever been made available online; we've long heard rumors of Apple getting the digital exclusive -- especially since Apple Corps and Apple, Inc. have settled their differences -- so to you, dear reader, we submit this: wouldn't any kind of real Beatles fan already have all the cuts on vinyl or CD -- or at least have downloaded or copied all they need? And hell, anyone who doesn't already have this stuff can always go pick it up relatively cheaply at any local record store and rip it -- at least then you won't have to deal with the DRM. In other words: we're still not sure why we should care about the world's most ubiquitous rock band selling music on the world's most ubiquitous digital download service in an all out DRM-love-in.

[Thanks, Josh]

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time

Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Portable Audio

digg_url = 'http://digg.com/apple/Engadget_Confirms_EMI_is_di tching_DRM';Sorry Beatles fans, tomorrow may still not be your day -- but to everyone else we've got good news. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that option number two explaining Stevie J.'s visit to London tomorrow for EMI's quickly ballyhooed presentation is going to be exactly what's been rumored about for weeks: the first of the major record labels is going to allow online sales of it's digital music... wait for it... DRM-free. It sounds like savvy consumers the world over finally pounded the message home (with a little help from Jobs himself); tomorrow could mark the first great pillar of DRM crumbling under the pressure of so many end-users and nations. The only question is whether EMI will wind up regretting this decision (we sincerely doubt it), or whether this will start a domino effect with the rest of the major labels that would, in effect, spell the end of DRM forever (one can only hope). Hey, maybe EMI will even make this a twofer and offer up The Beatles DRM-free. Now that would be somethin'.

P.S. -For those without a WSJ account -- while this may not necessarily end up being true, this is at very least not an April Fool's prank.

[Via PSFK]

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time

Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Among the more ridiculous campaigns waged by music publishers in their bid to control every aspect of their copyrights, has been their war on guitar tablature. Tablature is a simple notation system that helps people write down and learn how to play songs. For many years, there were a number of sites devoted to organizing all the tablature on the web, much of which was posted originally on message boards and fan sites, with these sites serving as popular destinations for amateur guitar players looking to learn their favorite songs. Although you'd think the music industry would be thrilled by the prospect of people learning to play popular songs so that they'd maintain an interest in the material, the big sites have all been basically shut down. Needless to say, all the tablature is still available elsewhere on the web, but if you want to find it, you just have to search a little bit harder. Now, the industry has worked out a deal to legitimize online tablature. One of the sites that had been shut down will reopen and its advertising revenue will be shared with music publishers, which will then supposedly share it with the artist. This is a positive development for guitar players, but it's still not clear why the industry went down this road in the first place. These companies admit that they don't derive any significant revenue from selling published tablature, so it's not as though the presence of it online was hurting its sales. It's the same thing as when the industry went after people posted videos of themselves dancing to certain songs on YouTube. Instead of appreciating the fact that fans were expressing interest in their music, and figuring out a way to take advantage of it, their first inclination is to treat their most avid fans like criminals.