Apple Announces New Digital Pricing
Jan0610:36 AM
Filed in: Music News
At today's MacWorld Expo in San Francisco, Apple made a big announcement regarding their iTunes Music Store which will secure their position as the industry's leading music retailer.
- A new variable pricing structure is being introduced in April: $0.69, $0.99, and $1.29 per song. Song prices will be broken down into three categories: older songs, newer songs that aren’t big hits, and current chart hits.
- Starting today, 8 million songs will be now DRM-free. By the end of next quarter, all 10 million songs will be DRM-free. Apple has inked deals with Sony, Warner, and Universal that will finally enable iTunes to offer DRM-free mp3’s from their music catalogue.
- All songs are 256 kbps AAC and you can upgrade your entire purchased library to DRM-free iTunes Plus.
- The labels and Apple have also come to terms on “over-the-air downloads”, which will allow iPhone users to download music to their mobile devices via cell networks.
This is a big time win-win for both customers and record labels. Customers finally get DRM Free Downloads to the full selection of music, plus the much requested over-the-air downloads on mobile devices, and cheaper pricing on older songs. Meanwhile, record labels get a few more pennies in their pockets for "hit" product.
Sounds like Apple's changed the digital game yet again, making it even tougher for the new digital stores of Amazon, Wal-Mart, and many others to compete.
-posted by Brian Thompson
