First there was the Steve Jobs manifesto [1], then there were the rumors [2] and now, finally, the sweet deliverance: at a press conference in London, EMI Group CEO Eric Nicoli announced, alongside Steve Jobs himself, that his company will be the first to offer high-quality, DRM-free downloads. That's right, EMI will offer its entire iTunes catalog as DRM-free, 256 kbps AAC files for a slight premium of $1.29. For your extra 30 cents you not only get a higher-quality file (128 kbps is the current iTunes standard), you also gain the ability to do whatever the heck you want with the song. Want to copy the file over to another computer? Or share it with a friend? Want to finally put something on that Zune you got for Christmas? All this and more will soon be possible, when the DRM-free tracks go live in May. Additionally, EMI will allow iTunes users to upgrade their entire libraries of EMI tracks to DRM-free files for the price of 30 cents a track and will offer all of its music videos sans DRM without a change in price. "We think our customers are going to love this, and we expect to offer more than half of the songs on iTunes in DRM-free versions by the end of this year," his Jobness announced. Let's hope that this ushers in a new age of DRM-free digital music and video. EMI and Apple, my hat goes off to you.

For more info on the tracks and photos of Steve Jobs and Blur's Damon Albarn:
- see this EMI press release [3]
- and this Apple press release [4]