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The press conference finally got underway. The press release has been made available alongwith the slides (pdf file), which are also been posted here.

Some of the key notes are:

• EMI will offer all songs from its catalog DRM free.
• EMI´s testing shows people prefer Non DRM to DRM 10:1
• iTunes is the first Partner, and songs on iTunes and iPod can now be played on any device that could play AAC format.
• Songs will be encoded in 256kbs AAC and offered for sale at $1.29 per song, current pricing is $0.99 per song
• Album prices will remain same, but the audio quality will be higher.
• EMI music videos will get the same DRM free make over
• Customers who have already purchased tracks can upgrade to DRM free ones for additional $0.30 per track
• Jobs: 50% of all tracks sold will be DRM free by year end

Techcrunch is also reporting it in real time.