Apple announced today that they’ll start selling tracks on the iTunes Music Store without DRM.  As an added bonus, those tracks will be 256kbps, rather than the 128kbps currently offered.  This should make a big difference in quality.  128kbps AAC isn’t quite good enough, in my opinion, 256kbps is just about right.

Doing so also establishes 256kbps is the new quality standard.  It’ll be interesting to see if the make 256kbps the default for ripping CDs with iTunes.  If they do, it’ll speed up the growth in storage required by people’s music collections, which will mean it’ll be time for an iPod upgrade sooner.