Finally.

Fellow critics of DRM? Our prayers have been answered...in part. CEO of Apple, Steve Jobs' thoughts on DRM has finally come to life. EMI Music has teamed up with iTunes to offer DRM-free music encoded at a much higher bitrate (256 kb/s). While the cost will be increased from $.99 to $1.29 per song, it's still a beautiful thing. This has to be the biggest move towards an intelligent compromise between the record companies and music fans. It's no longer download for free or pay for lower quality, DRM-laced music. We finally have a choice. We'll see how it pans out, but I hope it becomes a successful model that the rest of the big 5 record companies will look to and adopt. They can only make more money off of this venture. Those who want the better download will give more money to the companies, but it won't deter the downloaders who don't want to fork over the extra cash either. They still have that option. And for the rest of us who illegally download? Well, some of us might spend some money for the convenience and the higher quality, and the rest will continue what they're doing. It can only mean more money. It's doubtful that these iTunes downloads will spread to the point where iTunes users will ditch the idea of purchasing their music. These people aren't of the breed to stop. They are the people who appreciate the convenience and who want to avoid prosecution.

Jobs is a brilliant businessman. And with another step towards a more progressive enterprise, he's now avoiding the alienation of audiophiles looking to go digital and DRM-haters. It can only mean an increase in cash flow. Hell, all those die-hard DRM-haters might be more apt to buy other Apple products. Support the pioneering businesses, right?