Today,Apple and EMI announced that EMI’s entire music and video catalog will be available in May without any digital rights management (DRM) protection.Not only with the music be higher quality, but can be played on any player, presumably using MP3 format instead ofApple's proprietary AAC format. Being locked into any single vendor solution is undesirable. Similar issues abound for Microsoft Office 2007 file formats.

On my iPod, I ripped all my CDs into MP3 format, not AAC. I love my iPod, but if I ever decided to chose a different MP3 player, I did not want to go through the time-consuming process or re-ripping them again.

A blog by Seth Godin feels this Apple-EMI announcement means thatDRM is dead.

Back when music labels added value by producing and distributing music in physical form, it made sense for them to take a cut. Mass-producing CDs and distributing them out to music stores across the country costs lots of money. However, for online music, music labels don't have these same overhead costs, but continue the process of paying the artists only a few pennies per dollar. Some artists have file lawsuits to get their fair share.

This process applies to any published work. For example, you can purchase Kevin Kelly's book in various formats, at different prices, from different distributors. For example:

• In PDF for $2, directly from the author via PayPal
• black-and-white hardcover, for $20, from Amazon
• color softcopy, for $30, from Lulu

Each nets the author $1.50 in royalties per copy. You can decide how much in production and distribution costs you want to pay.

It's good to have choices again.

technorati tags: Apple, EMI, Microsoft, Office 2007, file formats, Open Office, Kevin Kelly, iTunes, Sony, iPod, music, downloads, publish, costs, royalties, choices