Apple announced that iTunes would be going through some changes at Macworld 2009 in early January.
Well folks, those changes have happened. Near as I can tell, iTunes is now DRM free! This is good because it lifts a lot of the crazy restrictions that Apple was placing on legally purchased music – It’s nice when companies stop punishing people who purchase things legally.
They have also implemented a new price structure by adding $0.69 and $1.29 price tiers to the existing $0.99 tier. The pricing is up to the record-labels or owners of the tracks.
Needless to say, there aren’t many $0.69 tracks. I couldn’t actually find any during my perusal of the iTunes store. That being said, I honestly didn’t see a ton of $1.29 tracks among the music that I like to listen to. It’s clear that they have only priced popular songs at $1.29.
If you are like me and don’t particularly excited for trendy or modern popular music (because I’m cool like that), you shouldn’t notice much of a difference in the pricing structure.
Another thing that you might notice is that some of the same recordings are priced differently based on the album they are from (See Sweet Home Alabama in the image above). I’m not sure if that will stay the same, but it is the case for the moment.
The Geek Whisperer 