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Interesting day yesterday, then. EMI and Apple announced a shift away from Digital Rights Management - albeit at a premium price, and the European Commission announced an investigation into anti-competitive behaviour by major record labels AND Apple (nice timing guys…).

Some thoughts:

:: increasing the price for open non rights-managed content is, I think, a fair enough trade off - especially if you consider the pressure that EMI has been under to deliver to its shareholders. I’m really trying not to be cynical about this :)

:: iTunes delivers tracks in the AAC format. This isn’t going to change, so who is going to pay an premium for a closed format, even if I can move it between a small number of devices or share it with my friends?

:: on the sharing note, the record industry has never ever felt comfortable allowing its customers to swap content - and I see no reason for it to change now (remember: ‘home taping is killing music’). I’d expect a renewed push against file sharers at the very least…maybe they’ll pick on someone their own size?

:: OK, so I’m going to be a little cynical after all! EMI has never given anything away for nothing - why would it start now? It must know that unprotected files are going to add to the pool of shared content that’s out there right now (and easily available through improved tools for searching and downloading)

:: And finally, the fact that Steve Jobs is able to shift and influence major media company behaviour speaks volumes for the power of the digital age we’re living through. Talk about transformative - we’re seeing signs of change in so many different places now it’s quite easy to become complacent…

Ah, heady days…