So, yesterday Apple and EMI announced DRM free downloads on the iTunes music store. One of the things about this announcement is that the DRM Free songs will be encoded at 256k/s, not the current 128k/s. this means that if you fill your 80Gb iPod with DRM Free songs from iTunes, not only will it cost you a staggering $13,000, but it will also mean you only get 10,000 songs, not the current 20,000. I suppose this just now means apple will want to release a 100Gb iPod fairly shortly after.

But anyway, i suppose my next question is about when will the TV studios and Movie industry decide to do the same? i recently got my hands on a $100 US iTunes gift card, and have being buying TV shows with it. Thing is, i cant watch them on my 32″ TV with the 5.1 audio because i cant get it to stream to the XBox360, and i wont be buying an Apple TV just for that.

ideally, if we could get them in DRM Free mode too (say for $2.50 a pop), even at their current quality, or in 720p HD quality, converting them to play on other devices (Pocket PC, XBox360, Smartphone or PSP) would not be a trivial thing to do. If only it where that easy. some how i think Hollywood have their heads up in asses, so i don’t think it will happen soon, but please prove me wrong!