Hey EMI, Are We Still On For May?

We still haven’t heard a peep from EMI and Apple about their promise to remove digital rights management (DRM) from EMI’s online music catalog by the end of the month. (This is the deal that lets consumers buy EMI music online from any store, and then listen to it on any MP3 player or cellphone.)

Well, we did hear one small bit of news. As of Monday, EMI is being taken over by a private equity firm for $4.7 billion. And now Warner Music is considering countering that bid and making one of their own.

Warner Music, as you may recall, is very pro-DRM. If Warner Music ended up with EMI’s music catalog, would they unravel last month’s Apple-EMI joint announcement? That’s what Apple 2.0 blogger Philip Elmer-DeWitt is wondering. So are we, but we can’t imagine a world where Apple’s well-oiled PR machine has to retract one of their announcements–especially one that would reverse what Steve Jobs and millions of consumers want.

Apple-EMI Music Deal in Peril? [Apple 2.0]

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