January 8, 2009 by Alexei M
By the end of March all songs downloaded from iTunes will come free of DRM (digital rights management). The announcement came at the final Macworld keynote from Apple where it was the highlight of a fairly run of the mill speech from Marketing VP, Phil Schiller.
By removing the DRM, Apple have neatly pulled the rug out from underneath distant competitors like Amazon, removing their only advantage over Apple (Amazon and others offer their songs free of DRM).
At the same time as the removal of DRM Apple are introducing variable price points. Instead of simply selling everything at 99 cents (or 79 pence) there will now be three separate bands, 69 cents, 99 cents and $1.29. Only time will tell whether this amounts to a net loss or saving by the consumer though, according to Schiller, most of the labels are planning to offer songs at the cheaper price.
The third and final change to iTunes relates to the iPhone 3G. Customers will now be able to enjoy exactly the same iTunes experience on their 3G iPhone that they do on their desktop, browsing, buying and previewing music to their heart’s content. Up until now, iTunes has only been available over WiFi networks.
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