Report: iTunes Drops Pricing Demand To Gain DRM-Free Songs

Ed Sutherland (7:02 am PDT, Jan 06 2009)

Itunes fans may soon be able to purchase more songs free of copy-protections, the result of a reported break-through in negotiations with music publishers.

According to CNET, the changes could be announced as soon as Tuesday at Macworld Expo 2009 in San Francisco, Calif.

Apple reportedly has agreed to adopt a three-tier pricing plan, shifting from its previous demand for all songs to be sold for a single price. The change will allow Sony BMG, Universal and Warner Music to charge more for popular titles, according to sources sited by the report.

Although Apple has offered some songs in DRM-free format, most publishers have held out from selling copy-protection free music through iTunes because of the pricing dispute.

If the report is true, DRM-free titles could also be sold to iPhone users.

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About the author

Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.

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