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 Apple today launched iTunes
Plus - DRM-free music tracks featuring high quality 256 kbps AAC encoding for audio
quality virtually indistinguishable from the original recordings - for just NZ$2.49 inc GST
per
song. iTunes Plus is launching with EMI's digital catalogue of outstanding recordings,
including singles and albums from Coldplay, The Rolling Stones, Norah Jones, Frank Sinatra,
Joss Stone, Pink Floyd, John Coltrane and more than a dozen of Paul McCartney's classic
albums available on iTunes for the first time.
iTunes will continue to offer its entire catalogue, currently over four million songs, in the
same versions as today - 128 kbps AAC encoding with DRM - at the same price of NZ$1.79 inc GST per song, alongside the higher quality iTunes Plus versions when available.
In addition,
iTunes customers can now easily upgrade their library of previously purchased EMI content to
iTunes Plus tracks for just NZ$0.60 cents a song and NZ$6.00 for most albums.
"Our customers are very excited about the freedom and amazing sound quality of iTunes
Plus," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "We expect more than half of the songs
on iTunes will be offered in iTunes Plus versions by the end of this year."
"This is a tremendous milestone for digital music," said Eric Nicoli, CEO of EMI
Group. "Consumers are going to love listening to higher quality iTunes Plus tracks from
their favourite EMI artists with no usage restrictions."
With the release of iTunes Plus, customers can now download tracks from their favourite EMI
artists without limitations on the type of music player or number of computers that purchased
songs can be played on. iTunes is also offering customers a simple, one-click option to easily
upgrade their library of previously purchased EMI content to the iTunes Plus versions. EMI
music videos are now also available in iTunes Plus versions with no change in price. iTunes
Plus songs purchased from the iTunes Store will play on all iPods, Mac or Windows
computers, widescreen TVs with Apple TV and soon iPhones, as well as many other digital
music players.
The iTunes Store features the world's largest catalogue with over three million songs,
4,000 music videos, 100,000 podcasts and 20,000 audiobooks. The iTunes Store has sold over 2.5
billion songs, making it the world's
most popular online music store.
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