Tech Shout!

Apple has launched iTunes Plus, which offers DRM-free music tracks featuring high-quality 256kbps AAC encoding for near-original audio quality at just $1.29 per song.

iTunes Plus includes EMI’s digital catalog that includes singles as well as albums from well known musicians such as Coldplay, The Rolling Stones, Norah Jones, Frank Sinatra, Joss Stone, Pink Floyd, John Coltrane and Paul McCartney.

However, iTunes will continue to offer its entire catalog which currently includes over five million songs in the same 128 kbps AAC enoding with DRM at the same price of 99 cents per song.

What’s more; iTunes customers can easily upgrade their library of previously purchased EMI content to the newly launched iTunes Plus tracks for just 30 cents per song and $3 for most albums.

Here is what Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO had to say: “Our customers are very excited about the freedom and amazing sound quality of iTunes Plus. We expect more than half of the songs on iTunes will be offered in iTunes Plus versions by the end of this year.”

Plus, with the release of iTunes Plus, customers will be able to download tracks of their favorite EMI artists without limitation on the type of music player or number of computers that purchased songs can be played on. This is because EMI and Apple had announced a DRM-free catalog just a few days ago.

iTunes Plus songs can be played on all iPods, Mac or Windows computers, widescreen TVs with Apple TV and soon iPhones, as well as other digital music players.

EMI music videos are also available in iTunes Plus versions with absolutely no change in price.