Way to go, EMI!

Tomorrow EMI will announce during a press conference with Apple what we've all been waiting for.

I just realized while typing this that most often my blog entries have been focused on Apple or at least mentioned them. So, a quick side note, Apple is doing what needs to be done right now. Change. They keep instigating where DRM is concerned, changing iTunes, creating an icon out of earbuds, and more, in a time that change is the thing the music industry needs most.

Back to EMI, just a couple of the artists whose music will become DRM free tomorrow are The Rolling Stones and Norah Jones, Coldplay, The Gorillaz, and Janet Jackson.

The Beatles are the one group whose music is still in negotiations, which could prove to be a problem if other labels don't follow the lead of EMI and then stipulations are in place such as, these few artists' songs come with the freedom to use as you please, but these don't, but this is under EMI and still doesn't. It may not be a problem for long though, as many people were expecting the announcement tomorrow to in fact be about the Beatles music being on iTunes DRM free. So hopefully all of those expectations have reasoning behind them that will end in successful resolutions for us.

"EMI, which has historically been one of the more experimentation-friendly major labels, realized that that's the future," said Aram Sinnreich, a senior analyst with Radar Research.

EMI and Apple aren't putting out any official releases until tomorrow, but everyone can excitedly look forward to hearing and reading about it, as well as watching to see what comes of it.

EMI has had money problems for quite some time and keeps toying with being bought by Warner Music, but has rejected all of their bids so far.

This just may be what it takes to keep them in the game, let's watch iTunes sales.

Because really, how convenient would it to be able to spend 99 cents on a song but be able to easily import it into a program and make your own ringtone, or put it on your non-iPod MP3 player? That's the question, whether the convenience is great enough to bring sales to a level where it's proven a great idea to drop DRM.