iTunes Plus goes live: Good riddance to bad DRM

They told us it was coming a month ago and now they're making good on that promise: Apple, in partnership with EMI, has officially launched the "iTunes Plus" store alongside a version 7.2 upgrade for iTunes. In case you forgot, the store is peddling 256kbps, DRM-free AAC files for the price of $1.29 a pop. In addition, owners of existing EMI/iTunes tracks will be able to "upgrade" to the higher-quality, DRM-free tunes for $0.30 a track or $3.00 for "most albums." Of course, Apple isn't the only game in town as far as DRM-free downloads are concerned, though it is quite encouraging to see the unabashed market leader taking such a bold step. At present, only EMI tracks are available from iTunes Plus, though there are surely more labels in the pipeline.

Alongside iTunes Plus, Apple also quietly launched another new iTunes service: iTunes U, which offers up multimedia education content free of charge. Podcasts, audio files and videos are already available from the likes of Stanford, Duke, Texas A&M, and the Otis College of Art and Design with more, presumably, to come.

For more on iTunes:
- see this iTunes Plus press release
- and this press release announcing iTunes U