iTunes DRM-free Songs. At What Cost?
Posted January 8th, 2009 by Albert Banks
Apple recently announced they will offer DRM-free versions of all songs in their library by the end of the quarter. For now, about 80% of the library will be available without DRM. Apple struck a deal with the four major labels and multiple independent labels – with a catch.
The catch is they must allow for $.69 and $1.29 song pricing in addition to the previously standard $.99 price. Not that big a deal until you look more closely.
- Most new music will now be priced at $1.29 versus $.99.
- To get the DRM-free version of a $.69 song, you have to pay a 30 cent premium ($.99)
- The DRM-free versions are still AAC format, meaning they are still are tied to Apple software and devices.
This deal is great for the music labels, as they get a revised pricing stucture. Apple wins by publicly fighting and “defeating” DRM.
But, consumers are a big fat loser with this change. They will pay more for new and DRM-free music, and those files will still be in Apple’s format. Until Apple starts offering only DRM-free (or same priced) music in the standard MP3 format, iTunes will continue to be a sub-standard provider of digital music.
January 14th, 2009 at 2:56 pm
UPDATE: Your account information is stored in every iTunes Plus file. Although the files feature no copy protection, files downloaded contain the email address you registered with in iTunes.
February 12th, 2009 at 7:34 pm
Customers who have already purchased music from Itunes shouldn’t have to pay more for there tracks to have no DRM. If Apple would play nice. They would upgrade previous purchases free hence attracting a lot more business revenue.
October 22nd, 2009 at 7:06 pm
Even though members can be academic experts and researchers, Yahoo! ,