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"EMI this week patched up their differences with venerable rock band Pink Floyd, announcing a new five-year distribution deal that will keep the group's music on iTunes in album form and as individual tracks. The contract covers Pink Floyd's 14 studio and three live albums, and it ends the legal acrimony that arose last year when the band sued EMI."

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Early in 2010, Pink Floyd was gone from iTunes (as well as other legit distribution outlets) due to an expired EMI deal and lawsuit. Now you can once again purchase Pink Floyd on iTunes so they must have sorted it all out. You can also pick and choose the tracks instead of having to buy entire albums, a bonus for some, but if I remember correctly from my Pink Floyd days, you really should listen to the album from beginning to end for the full effect of their genius. At least that is how I remember it, feel free to go your own way.

All of Pink Floyd's post-"Dark Side of the Moon" albums have vanished from iTunes, due to the group's contract with EMI that covered those works, which ended on June 30.

You will have to get your fix for those albums from another source, at least in the near future until — or if — a new contract is signed. The albums prior to "Dark Side of the Moon" are still available, since those are under a different contract. But why would you want that old stuff, anyway?

"Music legends Pink Floyd won a lawsuit with their label EMI Thursday, with the band successfully defending its right to block the sale of individual songs on digital download services like iTunes."

Pink Floyd signed contract with EMI, and one of the conditions was that EMI couldn't sell individual songs without the permission of the band. This was before the digital revolution, so EMI thought they could sell the songs, since it wasn't addressed in the contract. Woops. Court sides with Pink Floyd. Not too surprising to see this since Pink Floyd has always been about the album experience.

"Depeche Mode fans will be the first to try out the new iTunes Pass system, sort of a Season Pass for a particular band or album. Buying an iTunes Pass with give fans access to exclusive extra songs, videos, and other content for a limited time."

The new feature was unveiled today by EMI in iTunes. The tracks will be DRM-free, obviously, and fans will get extra content that won't be available to the general public when the album ($9.99 USD) is released on April 21st. This pass will be good until June 16th, so fans will get extras periodically over the next 15 weeks. I would hope you got a lot of extra material for double the cost of the normal album, sounds like this is going to be something for the Über fan.