For music lovers, the Apple launch today of iTunes Plus, is bigger than the descent of the iPhone from the heavens. The new option for iTunes customers features DRM-free (digital rights management) music tracks that offer - for $1.29 per song - high-quality 256 kbps AAC encoding for "audio quality indistinguishable from the original recordings." Figure that the tunes plus will have twice the sound quality of existing downloads. And as you, the all-important consumer, know, DRM-free tunes mean you can listen to them on any device or platform.

If you look closely at the slections, you'll notice they only have the rights to EMI’s digital catalog at the moment, but considering that includes artists such as Coldplay, The Rolling Stones, Norah Jones, Frank Sinatra, Joss Stone, Pink Floyd, John Coltrane, Robbie Williams and more than a dozen of Paul McCartney’s classic albums available, it's a good start.

“Our customers are very excited about the freedom and amazing sound quality of iTunes Plus,” said god, I mean, Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We expect more than half of the songs on iTunes will be offered in iTunes Plus versions by the end of this year.”

To upgrade your library of previously purchased EMI content to iTunes Plus tracks, it'll cost you just 30 cents a song and $3.00 for most albums. To go to iTunes Plus, go the iTunes store and they'll prompt you to upgrade to iTunes 7.2.

For more information, check out the Apple press release.

To hear today's webcast, click here: EMI.