Steve Jobs has been known to play Grateful Dead music as the audience is seated for his keynote address, so it should come as no surprise that the Dead has let a "deal go down" with Apple's iTunes Music Store. The Dead, as outlined in the email below, are now offering all their live archival recordings as downloads from the iTunes Music Store. The band also plans to release some unreleased shows via the ITMS "in the near future."

Hey now.

It's time for our next step into the digital domain: Beginning March 1st, all the live Grateful Dead archival recordings -- the two-track "Dick's Picks" series and the multi-track "Vault" series -- will be available for direct downloading through iTunes Music Store and GDStore.com. Studio albums have been available at ITunes for some time.

In the near future, certain new, previously unreleased shows will be digitally available exclusively through the iTunes Music Store and GDStore.com.

You can access these downloads either through iTunes or through Dead.net's own GDStore.com Apple will be offering complete shows and single songs up to 10 minutes long in their AAC format. At GDStore.com, you can choose among four different file formats (128, 256, Windows Media, Lossless) for complete shows, but single songs won't be available.

We've been on the cutting edge of music distribution for more than 30 years, and the evolution to digital sharing is not surprising. Dead Heads have always honored ethical standards in their sharing, and we think this offering represents a great combination -- it's easy to use and it's legal.

Enjoy!

Your friends at Grateful Dead Productions