Apple is finally taking off DRM

That's right they are finally doing something not just issuing calls to remove DRM. They announced Monday a deal with EMI music to put the entire catalog on iTunes DRM free. There is a catch, it costs $.30 more but you get twice the bit rate so I think it's worth it especially for classical the tends to loose a bit at the 128kbps rate. I even have my first purchase picked out. EMI has a big catalog but one part is a big Classical collection. They are the only label that has Alison Balsom, a phenomenal trumpeter. I hadn't gotten any of the tunes from iTunes with her as the nuances of her music would get lost in the downloadable version. The new version is CD quality so every little nuance will be there to enjoy. So I'll be checking every week until they get posted and once they are I buy it. i think it's important to show the music companies that this will work. That people will buy music legally if what they want is available when they want it. They don't want such restrictions.

I have not purchased audiobooks from iTunes as I can get them cheaper from Audible and don't have to have an iPod so audiobooks are strictly a Windows thing for me. That's why I did the compromise and loaded the Windows partition. Sometmes I wish I had just gotten the ipod. A refurbished shuffle is available for only $49 so it would have been cheaper than a copy of Windows but my player was free and Jan's was only $30 last year and we have them already. Besides where else was I going to test Office 2007? I do have to admit I generally use Open Office instead though. I just prefer Mac OS.