Apple Drops Anticopying Measures in iTunes

[Pale Blue Dot]

Source: New York Times

SAN FRANCISCO — Apple said it would begin selling song downloads from all four major music companies without the anticopying measures that have been part of its iTunes store since it opened in 2003. It will also move away from its insistence on pricing songs at 99 cents.

Philip W. Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide product marketing, announced the changes at the Macworld Expo here. They are the product of a new deal between Apple and the three largest music companies: Sony BMG, the Universal Music Group and the Warner Music Group.

As the recording industry has sought for years, the price of many older and less popular songs in the store will drop to 69 cents beginning in April, while the biggest new hits will go for $1.29. Others that are in more moderate demand will remain at 99 cents.

In 2007, Apple made a deal with EMI, the smallest of the four major record companies, to sell higher-quality audio files of its songs without digital rights management, or D.R.M., the security software that limits how many copies a customer can make of a download, and also restricts what devices the song can be played on. Many analysts saw the demise of D.R.M. as an inevitability, since the major labels have been selling music without those restrictions through other large online retailers, like Amazon.com and Rhapsody.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/07/technology/companies/07apple.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

[Arctic Dave]

1. Cool.

[Duer 157099]

2. and I *might* finally consider using iTunes

I will pay for media, but I will boycott those companies who make it difficult and unbearable for me to manage what I paid for.

Good for them.

[Downtown Hound]

3. DRM is a complete joke

The people who actually pirate stuff get copies that have had all DRM removed, and the people who actually pay for it have to suffer the consequences of installing it on their machines.

[WriteDown]

4. Apple is finally catching up....

Itunes is still horrible though. Iphone 3G has me locked in though.

[Tuttle]

15. I agree

and am also locked: what a sorry-assed POS program!

Tut-tut

[StudsT]

5. Sounds like the music execs are finally catching on

apple has finally showed them the light by providing a steady revenue stream

now i hope i will be easily be able to move my music around to different computers/devices =)

StudsT

[WriteDown]

10. When the day comes when I can easily

sync my iphone 3G with all 3 of my computers, then Apple will have made some strides.

[StudsT]

11. that would be the next logical step for apple and i bet we will be seeing that down the road

hopefully sooner, rather than later... but apple certainly has a rep for making our computers and now devices (e.g. the amazing iphone and touch), easier to use and with this major restriction removed (and of course if the entertainment execs approve) it is in their interest to make their customers happy.

though i am a little concerned about apple as an institution losing it's focus if/when Steve Jobs becomes incapacitated and/or no longer able to guide them and they are not able to find another visionary as gifted as he.

StudsT

[WriteDown]

18. I wouldn't bet that...

but hope springs eternal :). Mac has very monopolistic tendencies at its root, but they do make a few great products.

[nyc 4 Biden]

6. Nice.

Does this mean songs bought on iTunes will now be in .MP3 format instead of .MP4?

[merwin]

14. Why would anyone use MP3 anymore?

Windows Media Audio, OGG, AAC, and AC3 all beat the shit out of MP3.

I personally use 320k OGG for all of my stuff.

[BunkerHill24]

7. Cool.....they learned its rather hopeless to litigate their own consumers.. n/t

[MrScorpio]

8. Good, I get to save some CDs

It was ridiculous. The whole anti-copying process was easy to break anyway. Just burn the tracks on a CD and reload them back into iTunes as MP3s

[laconicsax]

9. Never had a problem with the anticopying measures.

Buy an album on iTunes, burn it to disc, rip disc in Windows Media Player, copy files back into iTunes (now as DRM-free .mp3).

Been doing that for a few years now

[StudsT]

12. way too many steps

once i buy a song on itunes (no matter where) i should be able to sync all that info with all my other devices/computers with the click of a button.

if you make a better (e.g. easier to use) 'mouse-trap' the world will beat a path to your door =)

StudsT

[laconicsax]

13. Only if you're lazy.

The old usage rights already permit you to sync to an iPod and up to five different computers.

I'm not saying that the Apple DRM was great, I'm just saying it wasn't oppressive.

[StudsT]

17. and that i am =)

just like everyone else ;)



StudsT

[NYC Liberal]

16. The labels tried to dethrone iTunes by letting Amazon et al go DRM-free but not iTunes

Now they're finally realizing it didn't work.

[Ian David]

19. Yay! Now I can use iTunes to make video montages of my home movies! n/t