Adam Smith’s invisible hand is at work in the music download world. Apple apparently plans to announce tomorrow that it will drop the price of its DRM-free tunes from $1.29 to $.99. Coming on the heels of Amazon’s launch of its own MP3 store, this sounds like a bit of competitive pressure on the music download king. It was bound to happen. What’s amazing is that it has taken so long.
Also in tomorrow’s announcement, Apple plans to add some indie music labels to its iTunes Plus (DRM-free) service.
So now my question is whether previously purchased music can be converted to DRM-free, or do we still get charged for the conversion. Plus how much of their catalog is DRM-free now? I haven’t bought anything in awhile.
Good question on conversion charges. I don’t know, but I’ll see if I can find out. RE: the catalog – aside from indie music, we’re still talking about EMI as the major-label provider.
I find is refreshing that the music industry seems to be slowly migrating to a more consumer friendly position. With the recent events of Spiral Frog, Amazon MP3’s and now the Apple store lowering the prices on their no DRM tracks, it leads me to wonder the cause for all of this behavior. Not to look a gift horse in the mouth, but I wonder if it’s just the labels thrashing around in response to Apple’s near monopoly on the music player market, a response to declining revenues or most unlikely even listening to consumers!
I wonder if they will be lowering the price of their DRM-laden tracks, too?
Nevermind – just read the article! :) “(DRMed tracks will also remain at 99¢)”
Can you feel the Apple hold on the music playing public slowly cracking?
Apple screws early adopters by dropping iPhone price by $200 (for more flash) less than $60 after it first becomes available.
NBC stops offering its shows on iTunes.
Apples new iPod classic/Touch/iPhone don’t support video out with any existing devices in the iPod universe.
Amazon offers VBR 256k MPEG-3 unprotected songs from two major labels at 89 or 99 cents per song to Apples $1.29 songs from only one major label. And Apple is still using AAC even on their Plus tracks, so most won’t play on non-Apple devices without conversion.
Apple bricks random iPhones that have unauthorized programs installed on them, or that aren’t tied to AT&T anymore. Oops, sorry. Still love us?
Seems like Apple’s arrogance is slowly putting them in a bad place. Will be interesting if this continues (for a long time) if it starts to affect their MP3 player marketshare…