PassAlong, a digital media company based in Tennessee, has announced a deal with EMI to sell the music company’s entire digital catalog DRM-free.

The bonus of this agreement with PassAlong, is that its stores will offer the tunes as 320kbps mp3 format - a higher bitrate than the 128 and 192kbps bitrate that is currently offered by many online stores, including iChoons. This means that downloading a 320kbps mp3 that is free of the DRM restrictions will sound nearly as good as a cd and be even more versatile. You can play DRM-free tracks in any portable player, you can move it from one machine to another, regardless of platform, you can burn a cd of it and play it anywhere. Heck, at 320kbps you can even dj that shizzle to a slammin dancefloor and it will probably go over great! Of course, music of any format only sounds as good as the speakers its played on, so many may never hear the difference between a high quality mp3 and a cd or vinyl copy. The bigger/better the soundsystem, the more of a difference you will hear…

iChoons has plans to offer the premium quality downloads for 30 cents more, and Amazon will likely also offer the premium quality tracks when it launches its digital music store this summer. PassAlong passed the buck on how much it will charge for the higher quality tracks, stating that price is decided by the individual retailers.

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News from Reuters.
EMI
PassAlong music stores
for your entertainment stores - Trans World Entertainment’s audio/DVD/video game store. Part of the PassAlong media company.