PRESS RELEASE
30 May 2007
Apple Launches iTunes Plus
Higher Quality DRM-Free Tracks Now Available on the iTunes Store Worldwide
SYDNEY, Australia—31 May 2007—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 RRP A$2.29 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 RRP A$1.69 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 RRP A$0.50 cents a song and RRP A$5.00 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 four million songs, 7,000 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.
Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Today, Apple continues to lead the industry in innovation with its award-winning computers, OS X operating system and iLife and professional applications. Apple is also spearheading the digital media revolution with its iPod portable music and video players and iTunes online store, and will enter the mobile phone market this year with its revolutionary iPhone.
- Apple, the Apple logo, Mac, Mac OS, Macintosh, iTunes and iPod are trademarks of Apple. Other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.