Beginning of the End

You have probably heard by now if you pay attention to this stuff that EMI has agreed to sell its songs in non-DRM MP3 format on iTunes, with the notable exception of the Beatles catalog, which has never been released for download. EMI have also announced the intention to sell "premium" versions of their catalog, high bitrate MP3's offering a choice of bitrates "up to CD quality", this being the claim of the EMI press release. No word on whether this will include lossless FLAC as we do here. It's good that some of the majors are getting a clue, though it does take some of the fun out of being able to say that ALL of the majors are still lacking in the clue department. Eventually, bandwidth and storage limitations will become quaint notions of the past as fiber to the home, public WiFi, and net access through your plumbing (Google's April Fool's joke of 2007) become widespread. Lossless audio will be the standard. Even streaming HD video will be possible over the web, though I imagine this could take 10 years.

I can neither confirm nor deny rumors that the Beatles will be offered for download ONLY here at BitWorks Music. Actually, I could deny all rumors like that, rumors like the complete Beatles catalog being offered in FLAC and high quality MP3 album only format with complete multimedia presentation, only here at BitWorks Music. In fact, I would also deny that Sir Paul just rang me up a minute ago, inviting me to come round for tea.

Speaking of Beatles, it was 40 years ago that Sargeant Pepper was released.