Apple finally drops DRM on iTunes music, OTA 3G music downloads?
Apple has dropped DRM from iTunes, according to various reports. While we’ve been waiting for this for a pretty long ass time, it’s said that the actual deal was only inked in the last week or so. What does this mean for you if Apple actually announces this tomorrow? Well, for starters, older music would drop to $0.79/song, but this would open the possibility of pricing current “hits” for more than $0.99. Most likely $1.99, if we had to guess. The good news is that any new music would be DRM-free out of the gate, with the older titles slowly being freed from their chains over the course of the next little while. Additionally, those same sneaky sources have reported that Apple has also got past another hurdle: music downloads over 3G. We’ll see if this pans out, but it sure as heck makes sense, and boy, would it make iTunes an even bigger goldmine.
[Via AppleInsider]
Savvy move, Larger Fruit. Savvy move.
What does this mean for itunes movies and tv shows?
This is likely due to the improving popularity of Amazon MP3, which sells music for as low as 0.79 and is DRM free. I’m glad if they do this though cause i switched to Amazon quite some time ago. Just much better knowing you have files u can put on other devices (mobile phones, etc.) without having to convert everything. Didn’t hurt that the music was cheaper also.
Great news for BlackBerry fans as well. Means the Media Sync will actually sync your iTunes completely.
Does this still mean that Apple will over charge on all of it’s hardware objects?
maybye jobbs’ health must be taking a turn for the worst on the other hand the arizonal cardnals got into the playoffs must be getting cold down in hell.
If this were true, I would use iTunes exclusively, forever.
what about the drm music i have already downloaded from itunes? will i have to rebuy to get drm free?
You must know that more data downloads on the ATTWS network are going to lead to even shittier voice quality?
@Galvatron, I’m really not sure what your point is?
bonesb, actually I think that’s the first time Galvatron had a point. He’s saying Hell must have froze over for this to finally happen.
Bye bye Att network. It can’t even handle normal web usage and now it’s going to let people download MBs of songs over their thin ice network? Damn.
ATT will just move more EDGE customers to crappy 1900 band so more 850 band can be used for 3G. Not that it will help.
So, yeah, if I already bought a track that currently is DRM’d, would I have to pay again for a DRM-free version of same song? Great for Apple/publishers but sucks for consumers if so.
Hey BG: where did the “subscribe to comments” checkbox go from BGR Mobile Edition site? I miss it, some posts I want to follow the comments and can’t now.
The Music Industry has allowed Apple to drop DRM on iTunes.
Apple has wanted DRM removed for sometime, but the Music industry has until now refused to let Apple do it.
he the music industry is killing themselves riaa’s oldschool kovorkian to assist
It makes sense for music download OTA since they already offer podcast download OTA.
It would be nice to have music video,tv shows and movie downloads on wifi straight onto the iPhone though.
I am glad you set this straight. I am fed up with headlines that twist the truth, including the one of this BGR headline which, incidentally, probably points to the one of the few CNET authors who does not sensationalize Apple headlines to attract traffic.
How does iTunes/Apple think they can charge $1.99 for a new hit song if Amazon is still charging $.99 for a new hit song? For me, there is absolutely no difference for me to use iTunes or Amazon mp3 to download a song except that about 25% of the time, Amazon is cheaper ($.89 or $.79). Both are loaded in iTunes and both will now have no DRM. The only remaining question is one of quality: will iTunes non-DRM tracks be 256k like Amazon?
I just don’t see how Apple can justify the higher price for DRM-free.
Maliek: They justify it by encoding the DRM free music at a higher bit rate. So it is actually a better quality recording, all around.
Not going to say that’s a great justification, which is why I buy everything from Amazon, but that is the reason. Also, they had to give a bit on that to get some of the bigger labels to sign off on it, in the first place.
That said, if they actually do this, and if they can start competing with Amazon on price, I will start buying from them instead. I would appreciate the convenience of getting things through iTunes.
That’s a good question for owners of iTunes songs/video…do we have to re-buy stuff outright? pay an upgrade fee? Or, will the previously purchased content be upgraded to DRM-free at no cost?