Opinions on yesterday’s EMI and Apple announcement:

• The BBC emphasises the relationship with piracy, referring to statements by EMI such as “Consumers tell us they would be prepared to pay a higher price for a piece of music they can play on any player” and “We have to trust our consumers.” I don’t believe that EMI believes those statements. Truth is that the price hike is to compensate EMI for anticipated consequential piracy, and to allow them to sell their music with a 30% price increase.
• Read/Write agrees that prices are going to go up, and that despite the win-win situation for Apple and EMI, it may well be Apple that gains the most long term.
• MacWorld’s Playlist however, suggests that everyone, including consumers, benefit from this agreement – the death of DRM. Their opinion identifies some ‘losers’ – notably the smaller online stores that use DRM.
• MacWorld looks forward to the future of digital music sales, pointing out the current annoyances with the iTunes Store, in particular those lovely Partial Albums and Album Only tracks.