Apple Slashes Price of DRM free iTunes

Songs now cost the same with or without copy protection
By Nick McMaster,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 16, 2007 4:39 PM CDT
Apple Slashes Price of DRM free iTunes
In a file photo Nessia Frazier listens on a Apple Computer iPod nano at the Apple store in Palo Alto, Calif., Monday, July 17, 2006. The recent rollout of songs without copy protection software at Apple Inc.'s iTunes Store has given consumers new flexibility, but questions emerge over the company's...   (Associated Press)

Apple has dropped the price of its Digital Rights Management (DRM)-free iTunes Plus songs from $1.29 to 99 cents, the same price at which it offers its copy-protected songs, news.com reports. The move looks like a response to  the September 25th launch of Amazon's mp3 store, which offers DRM-free music for 89-99 cents a song.

The impulse to sell digital music files with or without copy protection is complicated--consumers almost certainly would prefer DRM-free files, but many record labels (SonyBMG, Warner Music) mandate the software's inclusion. EMI is a notable exception, and as a result their songs make up the lion's share of major-label offerings on both AmazonMp3 and iTunes Plus. (More iTunes Store stories.)

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