Filed under: Audio, Business, Apple
Apple to raise prices on hot iTunes tracks, remove DRM
Starting April 7, Apple's long-standing policy of selling every song in the iTunes Store for 99 cents is reportedly going to be shaken up. Hot tracks will go up to $1.29, and some less-than-hot selections will drop to 69 cents.The LA Times is reporting that most songs will probably stay at the current 99 cent price, and that the lower price could be used to promote new artists. Meanwhile, some classic artists with consistent high sales might end up at the higher $1.29 price.
If you're a fan of obscure bands, this could work for you by lowering prices at the end of the long tail, saving you money on your hidden gems. On the other hand, popular songs wouldn't be popular if they didn't have a lot of fans -- fans who could get angry at having the price jacked up suddenly after years of paying one price for a track, regardless of popularity.
Good news for everyone, though: tracks at all price points are reportedly going to be DRM free and playable on any mp3-playing gadget.
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Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game.
The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
SirCrumpet said 8:51AM on 3-27-2009
"Good news for everyone, though: tracks at all price points are reportedly going to be DRM free and playable on any mp3-playing gadget."
Well sure, as long as that mp3-playing gadget can play AAC files.
Reply
Rboyett said 9:30AM on 3-27-2009
it is easy to convert non-DRM'ed ACC tracks to MP3 or any other format.
When this goes into affect, I'll finally start buying music off iTunes.
Reply
Franklin said 4:33PM on 3-27-2009
"it is easy to convert non-DRM'ed ACC tracks to MP3 or any other format."
While that is true, there is a generation loss in audio quality when you convert from one lossy compression format to another.
If you want first-generation quality in the MP3 format, you would be better off buying MP3s from Amazon, Real, Napster or another service that sells DRM-less music.