Apple cuts copy protection and prices on iTunes (AP)
Posted on Tue Jan 6, 2009 2:25PM EST
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SAN FRANCISCO - Apple Inc. closed its final appearance at the Macworld trade show Tuesday by cutting the price of some songs in its market-leading iTunes online store to as little as 69 cents and disclosing that soon every track will be available without copy protection.
Apple's top marketing executive, Philip Schiller, said iTunes songs would come in three pricing tiers: 69 cents, 99 cents and $1.29. Record companies will choose the prices, which marks a significant change, since Apple previously made all songs sell for 99 cents.
Apple offered the record labels that flexibility on pricing as it got them to agree to sell all songs free of “digital rights management" (DRM) technology that limits people's ability to copy songs or move them to multiple computers. By the end of this quarter, Apple said, all 10 million songs in its library will be available without DRM.
While iTunes is the most popular digital music store, others have been faster to offer songs without copy protection. Amazon.com Inc. started selling DRM-free music in 2007 and swayed all the major labels to sign on in less than a year.
The iTunes updates marked the highlights of Schiller's stand-in for CEO Steve Jobs, who used to make Macworld the site for some of Apple's biggest product unveilings, such as the iPhone. But Apple said last month that Jobs would not address the throngs this time because the company plans to pull out of Macworld next year.
Apple shares slipped $1.18, 1.3 percent, to $93.40 in afternoon trading.
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