iTunes Puts Final Nail in DRM Coffin

As the MacWorld convention kicks into high gear we would like to comment on what is sadly the most interesting thing to happen so far... (except for that Tony Bennett stunt, which was awesome.)

The iTunes music store finally struck a deal with the Big 4 and is offering DRM-free music. But at what cost?



Well the cost is to you. They will be creating a pricing model in which the old songs are cheap, $0.69; the bad songs stay the same price, $0.99; and the good stuff (you know the stuff you download from Limewire), will go up to $1.29. Yes, you read that right, the price goes up.

As if you dollar can go any farther in this economy. Please raise your hand if you've gotten a 23% raise lately.

Although digital music stores like Amazon MP3, Napster and WalMart Music have managed to negotiate DRM-free deals with all four music labels and the most popular stuff is still $.99, Apple (the leader in overall music sales) has struggled to expand their library to be completely DRM-free.

To be fair EMI has been selling songs on "iTunes Plus" DRM-free for more than a year now, but the other three labels have been holding out with rumors centered on price per song negotiations.

I thought Apple learned their lesson the last time they raised the price of DRM-free songs? Yeah, you don't remember that? It's because it didn't last long. There was an uprising and quickly the price was lowered back to $.99.

What I'm trying to figure out is why Apple has to raise their prices but Amazon, Napster and Walmart get to keep their DRM-free music for $.99 each and in some cases cheaper. Either Apple was taken like a girl at a mechanics garage, or there something fishy is going to happen and all digital music stores are going to start raising the prices.

Although the price of iTunes songs hasn't really increased since the launch (about 5 years ago), except for that temporally lax in judgment previously mentioned, they are still going to alienate quite a few people with this new model.

However, I'm not convinced their lack of price bumping over the last few years is a good enough reason to start now. The price of Silly Putty ($1) hasn't changed in 50 years. The way I see it, Apple really has no excuse.

The price of tech news on our blog hasn't changed since its inception in the 5^th century A.D., so check out some more of them:

Boredom, iTunes and More Agonizing Boredom: Apple Keynote at Macworld 2009

Sony Might Undergo Major Changes to Save Itself from Disaster

Leaked Tech Specs for Upcoming Sony Netbook

Intel Pressured to Postpone Calpella Processor

Video On Demand News: Roku, Netflix, Amazon, LG, Vudu, etc.