DRM-Free iTunes will have various price points

Well known for its 99 cents pricing, the Apple iTunes music store finally gave in to the music companies and offer multiple price points starting April 2009.  Each song will cost $0.69 , $0.99, or $1.29.  Phil Schiller at Macworld announced "most" of these music companies plan to offer music at the lower price point, but I would wait to see how true that is.  Without question pricing will also depend on popularity of the song.  Quality will improve, as the music will be encoded using 256 Kbps.

Another change is the songs will be sold DRM-free.  Digital Rights Management (DRM) is used to control usage of digital media so that you cannot duplicate and use the songs however you want to.  Although it has the largest market share in digital music sales in the United States, Apple is still very mindful of competition from Amazon.com and other online retailers, which sell digital music without DRM.

Another thing is I can't wait to try to download iTunes on my iPhone over the 3G network.  Previously you can only purchase music from Apple over wi-fi networks.  As well, if you buy music directly on your iphone, the songs will automatically be downloaded to your desktop the next time your phone is synced, making the entire music purchase experience easier.  Good job Apple.

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