News: iTunes goes DRM-free with variable pricing, OTA downloads for iPhone
iLounge | All Things iPod, iPhone, iTunes and beyond — Apple today announced that it has signed agreements with all the major music labels to offer their music in a DRM-free format on the iTunes Store. Like prior iTunes Plus tracks, all music will now be sold in DRM-free, 256kbps AAC format. Starting today, eight million songs are available; all ten million songs are expected to be available DRM-free by the end of the quarter. iTunes will offer customers a simple, one-click option to easily upgrade their entire library of previously purchased songs to the higher quality DRM-free iTunes Plus format for 30 cents per song or 30 ...

Apple Enables iTunes Music Downloads Over 3G
Phone Scoop - Latest News — Apple Enables iTunes Music Downloads Over 3G posted Today, 1:46 PM by Rich Brome Apple today announced that iPhone users can now buy music from the iTunes Store app and download the songs directly over 3G networks. Downloading previously required a Wi-Fi connection. The company also announced that all music will be now available in a DRM-free AAC format. A wider range of pricing was also announced, with songs available at 69 cents, 99 cents, or $1.29 starting in April. more info at Apple ...

Apple Gives Desktop Apps an Internet Life [GigaOM]
GigaOM Network — ... (17-inch version) and the new DRM free iTunes music store, without so much as mentioning Steve Jobs. Of all the product launches, I was most impressed with Apple’s new software – ...

Apple Announces Changes to the iTunes Store; Includes DRM-Free Music
MacBlogz - One Stop Apple News — ... iTunes customers DRM-free iTunes Plus songs in high quality audio and our iPhone 3G customers the ability to download music from iTunes anytime, anywhere over their 3G network at the same price as downloading to your computer or via Wi-Fi,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “And in April, based on what the music labels charge Apple, songs on iTunes will be available at one of three price points—69 cents, 99 cents and $1.29—with many more songs priced at 69 cents than $1.29.” See Apple Press Release

iTunes pricing and DRM schemes updated for 2009
The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) — ... Phil Schiller today outlined Apple's new pricing scheme for iTunes music, and announced additional music that will be available DRM-free. ...

Apple offers variable pricing, more DRM-free music on iTunes
L.A. Times Tech Blog — ... In the new iTunes pricing system, songs will cost either 69 cents, 99 cents or $1.29 apiece. In a press release, Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs (who let Senior Vice President Phil Schiller handle today's ...

iTunes finally goes DRM-free … done anyone really care?
Hardware 2.0 — ... News from the Macworld Expo - iTunes is in the final stages of shedding DRM, offering some eight million of its 10 million songs in Apple’s iTunes Plus DRM-free format. But does anyone care? Is there anyone who is still concerned about DRM buying anything from the iTunes store? Here’s the deal. Starting today , four music labels (Universal Music Group, Sony BMG, Warner Music Group and EMI) along with numerous independent labels are offering music in Apple’s 256 kbps AAC DRM-free format. At present some eight million tracks are available in iTunes Plus format. By the end of ...

Apple, labels both win with DRM-free iTunes, tiered pricing
Infinite Loop — ... , Apple has finally budged on its strict 99 per standard track pricing. Today, Apple announced three pricing tiers for its iTunes digital music store. Tracks will sell for 69 , 99 , and $1.29 based on a demand-based pricing system. Ars readers will remember that when iTunes Plus was introduced, it offered higher-quality, DRM-free tracks for $1.29 each before Apple ...

Apple’s Last MacWorld A Pretty Ho-Hum Affair
Podcasting News — ... iTunes Store - Beginning today, all four major music labels — Universal Music Group, Sony BMG, Warner Music Group and EMI — and thousands of independent labels, will offer their music in the DRM-free iTunes Plus format with higher-quality 256 kbps AAC encoding. iTunes customers can also now purchase and download songs directly onto their iPhone 3G over their 3G network — just as they do with Wi-Fi today — for the same price as downloading to their computer. And in April, song pricing on iTunes will get a bit more complicated, with tracks selling for 69¢, 99¢, or ...

Better step up work on that portable Reality Distortion Field generator
GMSV — ... . Under a deal with with the four major labels Universal Music Group, Sony BMG, Warner Music Group and EMI tracks will sell for 69 cents, 99 cents or $1.29, the higher rate for the most popular content, the lower for the tunes in the long tail. In return, the labels granted one of Jobs’ longstanding wishes (see “ ...

iTunes Music Now DRM-Free With iPhone 3G Network Downloads
iPhone Savior — ... "With iTunes Plus, you get high-quality, 256-Kbps AAC encoding. All free of burn limits and digital rights management (DRM)." Source: Apple.com ...

Apple raises prices as music sales slide
L.A. Times Tech Blog — ... ! OK, it was a little tardy, but that's not much of a surprise. Nor was the announcement by Apple that, in tandem with dropping DRM from all its tracks by the end of March (Universal Music Group, Sony BMG and Warner Music Group's labels had been the main holdouts), it would start charging higher prices for hits and lower prices for, err, the great mass of tracks that not many people buy. ...

Watch Out, Amazon! iTunes Plus Goes DRM-Free!
Pulse2 - Technology News And Reviews — ... songs that have already been previously downloaded, users can upgrade them to higher quality DRM-free for 30 cents per song.  About 8 out of 10 million of their songs will be available DRM-free starting today. Here are a few iTunes stats: -6 billion songs sold - 10 million songs available on iTunes - 9.7 million Macs were sold in 2008 - 75 million accounts on iTunes are now linked to credit cards - Macs have grown twice as fast as the PC market [via Apple press release and Techcrunch] ...

The Macworld Keynote Snooze Fest
Zatz Not Funny! — ... For me, as both an industry observer and as a geeky consumer, the most notable announcement is Apple (and the studios) making their entire music library DRM-free. Additionally, variable track pricing will be coming later this spring: $.69, $.99, and $1.29 ...

The last Apple Macworld keynote – a new iLife, a new iWork, a new 17 inch MacBook Pro, and updates to iTunes
Krunker — ... And FINALLY, changes are coming to iTunes. Apple finally gave up on their single price point of $99 cents – offering songs in three price points now – $69 cents, $99 cents, and $1.29. However, the company also announced that all four major music labels (Universal Music Group, Sony BMG, Warner Music Group and EMI) will now be offering their music in ...

Why Apple’s iTunes Concessions Are a Double-Edged Sword [GigaOM]
GigaOM Network — ... Apple’s announcements at Macworld may have lacked some of the flair and sizzle that CEO Steve Jobs usually brought to his keynote, but there was one announcement that, arguably, will wind up changing the playing field considerably. That announcement is the news of DRM-free sales from all of the major music labels through iTunes, and the addition of variable pricing. As rumored during the run up to Macworld, the world’s largest online music store will soon start selling songs for 69 cents, 99 cents or $1.29 each. ...

iTunes Store permitirá descargar mp3 por la red 3G
Celularis — ... Apple finalmente permitirá que el acceso al iTunes Music Store se haga a través de las redes 3G y no únicamente vía WIFI como hasta ahora ¿que implica esto? Por un lado que AT&T debe haber mejorado sus redes en USA porque hasta ahora han sido criticadísimas por su performance y, por otro lado, que ahora los usuarios de un iPhone van a poder comprar por impulso mucho más que antes. ...

iTunes concessions a double-edged sword
mathewingram.com/work — ... Apple’s announcements at Macworld may have lacked some of the flair and sizzle that CEO Steve Jobs usually brought to his keynote, but there was one announcement that, arguably, will wind up changing the playing field considerably. That announcement is the news of DRM-free sales from all of the major music labels through iTunes, and the addition of variable pricing. As rumored during the run up to Macworld, the world’s largest online music store will soon start selling songs for 69 cents, 99 cents or $1.29 each. The only question now, as Peter Kafka notes ...

MacWorld 09:
Technology - Channel Feed — ... Apple’s “One More Thing” for this keynote is the announcement that iTunes is going DRM free. Yahoo! It is abandoning the single pricing scheme though. Apple will be pricing songs in three price points. 69 cents, 99 cents and $1.29. ...

Morning Links
The Agitator — ... for shooting an unarmed drug smuggler should not be pardoned. Here’s a relevant 2006 essay from our likely new surgeon general on why he would vote against loosening the legal restrictions on marijuana. To be fair, Gupta is much more honest about pot than many people of his stature. But since when did a doctor’s responsibilities change from healing the sick to using the power of the state to prevent “unhealthy decisions?” iTunes soon to be DRM-free. Cult of the Presidency watch: “In 2003, a British ...

How to upgrade your library to DRM-free iTunes Plus
MacBytes.com — ... every format a separate license and every play a performance. [image] Getting it done First things first—open iTunes and click on the iTunes Store in the left hand tray. In the right hand column of the store, locate the Upgrade My Library link (image at right). ❝It’s definitely a step in the right direction. DRM is the reason piracy is very popular, because people want to own the music they buy❞—said Jason Barry @ Macworld via Wired See also Apple’s press release— Changes Coming to the iTunes Store See also Apple’s iTunes Plus FAQ After clicking, I ...

iTunes Drops DRM
PolicyBeta — ... Yesterday, Apple made a major but not entirely unexpected announcement that likely amounts to the last goodbye to digital rights management in the for-purchase digital music market. Beginning immediately (the full transition will take into the early spring), Apple will offer all iTunes tracks in the high-quality DRM-free format it calls “iTunes Plus.” Until now, the only major label supplying tracks in this format was EMI, ...

MacWorld 09: No Biggie
dailywireless.org — There were no big announcements at MacWorld in San Francisco yesterday, reports ComputerWorld. Philip Schiller, Apple’s top marketing executive, introduced software upgrades, a revamped top-end 17″ MacBook Pro and several important changes to the iTunes music store, but no new Mac minis or iMacs. The new laptop, set to ship at the end of this month, will list for the same $2,799 the current model costs, but it will be configured with a 2.66-GHz processor, 4GB of memory, a 320GB hard drive and the ...

Music Piracy Not That Bad, Industry Says
TorrentFreak — ... In the report IFPI writes: “An important development in 2008 was the licensing of more online stores to sell downloads without digital rights management (DRM), meaning consumers can play the music they acquire on any portable device. In January 2009, Apple announced it had signed deals with leading record companies to offer eight million DRMfree tracks at flexible price points. The move is expected to significantly boost download sales.” ...

The iTunes Consolidation Project
Zatz Not Funny! — ... networked 750GB Maxtor OneTouch 4 hanging off our Airport Extreme Base Station (AEBS). I believe this would provide access to all tracks from every computer in the home while also enabling us to create our own custom playlists (that I can sync to my iPhone and she can sync to her iPod Nano fatty). Has anyone gone down this path - am I on target? Some of the biggest winners in Apple’s decision (with studio support, obviously) to go entirely DRM-free have to be Sonos owners. Their systems have suddenly become a much ...

iTunes 69-Cent Bargain Bin to Debut April 7
Digital Daily — ... In the past, Apple (AAPL) has said that many more songs will be priced at 69 cents than at $1.29. But that 69-cent bargain bin is viewed as little consolation to some who question the wisdom of introducing what amounts to a 30 percent price increase with the economy in recession and online piracy an easy option. ...

Apple iTunes To Start Selling Hottest Tracks For $1.29 On iTunes
Pulse2 - Technology News And Reviews — ... Apple made the announcement about the changes to iTunes this past Janaury.  The songs being downloaded at the new price will be DRM-free.  This means you will be able to copy these songs from multiple computers to your iPod.  Currently the iPod erases all of the music if you want to copy files from another computer.  Many people complained about that. ...

Gadgetwise: Price Increases on iTunes to Start in April
NYT > Technology — As Apple announced in January, the company will incorporate a new $1.29 pricing structure for selected hit singles and some classic tracks on iTunes. The price increase — to $1.29 from 99 cents — will go into effect April 7, sources said. Apple has not yet publicly announced the date for the increase. The move is fueled in part by a strategy by the major record labels to accrue more dollars from digital downloads, as sales of compact discs continue to fall. The bump takes the price of a song over the $1 mark; it remains to be seen whether that psychological hurdle will affect ...

iTunes Store now infected with variable pricing, Amazon still $0.99
Engadget — ... are charging Apple more for the rights to sell its music than Amazon based on this quote attributed to Jobs in the Apple press release from January: in April, based on what the music labels charge Apple, songs on iTunes will be available at one of three price points-69 cents, 99 cents and $1.29-with many more songs priced at 69 cents than $1.29. Regardless, we know where we'll be purchasing our Miley Cyrus from now on. [Thanks, Jesse] Read -- January "Changes Coming to the iTunes Store" press release Read -- iTunes top ...

Apple makes buying iTunes music easy as 1-2-3
TG Daily - All News — ... which only has 10% of its top 100 songs priced above $0.99 -- with none of those being top 10 tracks. iTunes has become the largest online retailer of music and the record labels have targeted Apple to enforce their monetary desires. In fact, Apple CEO Steve Jobs quoted this reason explicitly in January when he said, "And beginning in April, based on what the music labels charge Apple , songs on iTunes will be available at one of three price points: 69 cents, 99 cents and $1.29, with most albums still priced at $9.99." [Our bolding. -Editor] The songs are in the iTunes ...

Simple no more: iTunes adopts variable music pricing
TechBlog — ... the reasons that iTunes has flourished to become the top music retailer is that Apple made buying music drop-dead simple. You could buy songs for one predictable reasonable price - 99 cents - and automatically move them to your portable player. But the music industry never liked that idea much. Recording moguls wanted to get more cash for more popular music, and almost from the beginning pressured Apple to move to variable pricing that would pay them more for hit songs. In January, Apple caved in , and now you're starting to see the expensive fruits of that decision. Engadget ...

MySpace.com to be saved by the success of the MySpace.com Music store during 2009?
Josh Chandler — ... about how MySpace was planning to challenge the perception of the digital music industry moguls, MySpace in fact were the first company to think about letting users download major record label content DRM free, of course the first major music download store to actually implement a widespread DRM free download service was Apple’s iTunes store in January 2009 . It is in part from recent news coming from ...

Apple gets its due in open-source iTunes crackdown
The Open Road — ... I love Apple's technology. I love its brand. I could do without its heavy-handed attempts to protect technology that its own recent actions suggest is heading toward extinction with DRM-free music now the norm on iTunes. ...

Apple sells over one million iPhone 3GS units; Jobs, ‘Customers are voting and iPhone is winning’
MacDailyNews — ... the third day after its launch. In addition, six million customers have downloaded the new iPhone 3.0 software in the first five days since its release. “Customers are voting and the iPhone is winning,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO, in the press release. “With over 50,000 applications available from Apple’s revolutionary App Store, iPhone momentum is stronger than ever.” MacDailyNews Note: He's baaack: Apple CEO Steve Jobs has not been quoted in an Apple Inc. press release since January 6th , eight days before Apple issued a " ...

Youtube + PRS Trouble – How much happened because PRS was dragging their heels?
Josh Chandler — ... (the number one music provider in the US) until January 2009 to get all record labels involved with producing DRM-free music for the iTunes store, now granted that has a fiscal monetary revenue model attached to it, but look at how consumer demand for MP3 versions of songs hit fever-pitch in early 2007 when ...

How much of Youtube’s recent PRS trouble was over those in PRS dragging their heels?
Josh Chandler — ... (the number one music provider in the US) until January 2009 to get all record labels involved with producing DRM-free music for the iTunes store, now granted that has a fiscal monetary revenue model attached to it, but look at how consumer demand for MP3 versions of songs hit fever-pitch in early 2007 when ...

Should the music industry be ‘disconnecting’ or ‘reconnecting’ people’s interest in digital music distribution?
Josh Chandler — ... With the announcement in  January 2009 that iTunes would now become DRM-Free it seemed as though the music industry had indeed began turning the right corner, and heading down the road to further digital prosperity. ...

Not Quite Sold on iTunes Home Sharing
Zatz Not Funny! — ... above.) This feature allows you to copy purchased iTunes content amongst five authorized devices in your home. It’s surely a simpler method of interaction than sneakernet-ing files around. However, Home Sharing does nothing to overcome the single iTunes Store account limitation. And, in fact, now that Apple’s tracks are DRM-free, Home Sharing is actually more restrictive than simply copying music via a USB stick. Perhaps Home Sharing 1.1 will allow Melissa and I to link our iTunes accounts in a ‘family unit’ sort of way. ...

Not Quite Sold on iTunes Home Sharing
Technologizer — ... above.) This feature allows you to copy purchased iTunes content amongst five authorized devices in your home. It’s surely a simpler method of interaction than sneakernet-ing files around. However, Home Sharing does nothing to overcome the single iTunes Store account limitation. And, in fact, now that Apple’s tracks are DRM-free, Home Sharing is actually more restrictive than simply copying music via a USB stick. Perhaps Home Sharing 1.1 will allow Melissa and I to link our iTunes accounts in a ‘family unit’ sort of way. ...

With Amie Street, Sony Music Opens Door to Dynamic Pricing Possibilities [GigaOM]
GigaOM Network — ... represents a potential step toward major music labels’ embrace of the dynamic pricing model, in which increased popularity of a song drives up its price. Although Sony, the first major label to sell music on Amie Street, is still only offering downloads using the tiered-pricing model it uses in iTunes, the deal with the startup clears a path for Sony to apply dynamic pricing to new artists’ music as they develop commercially. ...