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Sat, Aug 30, 2008 - 08:01 AM EDT  —  AAPL: 169.53 (-4.21, -2.42%)  |  NASDAQ: 2367.52 (-44.12, -1.83%)

Apple confirms iTunes Plus DRM-free song price drop to 99-cents
Tuesday, October 16, 2007 - 04:05 PM EDT

"Apple Inc. is reducing the price of all songs on its iTunes Store without anti-copying software to 99 cents from $1.29, bringing Apple's prices on such tracks closer to those offered by Amazon.com Inc., Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and other rivals in online music," Nick Wingfield reports for The Wall Street Journal, confirming our earlier report of the price drop that we posted yesterday (Apple offers select iTunes Plus DRM-free songs for 99-cents).

Wingfield reports, "In an interview, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said music on iTunes Plus – the portion of Apple's online music store featuring songs without digital rights management, or DRM, anti-copying software – will feature the reduced price later today or tomorrow. That applies mainly to songs from EMI Group Plc, the only major recording company with which Apple has cut a deal for DRM-free music so far. Apple has also already begun adding new music to iTunes Plus from independent recording companies at 99 cents a song... 'It's been very popular with our customers, and we're making it even more affordable,' Mr. Jobs said."

Full article here.

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Reader Feedback: ( = registered)

Oct 16, 07 - 04:09 pm Comment from: iPhone user

HEY! What if I bought tunes already? Do I get an Apple store credit? Let's all start crying now.

MDN word: learned, as in "I learned how to cry when a price goes down."

Oct 16, 07 - 04:16 pm Comment from: John Gee

I bought a song yesterday. Price protection!!! 30 cents please!

Thanks. love you Apple...

Oct 16, 07 - 04:41 pm Comment from: coolfactor

@John Gee

Actually, you're only entitied to 15 cents. Don't be greedy! grin

Oct 16, 07 - 04:48 pm Comment from: schmluss

nice move.

Oct 16, 07 - 04:49 pm Comment from: bIzarRo BalLmeR

Ah, competition is good..for us.

Oct 16, 07 - 05:05 pm Comment from: blucaso

Wow, I can actually feel good about NOT upgrading my songs to better copies.

But now will I be able to upgrade them for free? Methinks that feature is going to disappear.

Oct 16, 07 - 05:14 pm Comment from: DavidEGo

I still have iTunes 7.1 (I think), the version that does not support downloading DRM-free songs. Will this work with an older version of the iTunes software?

Inquiring minds want to know.

Oct 16, 07 - 06:15 pm Comment from: Apple Cider

Rarely a misstep, but Steve-O should rewind the clock when he was asked at the news conference with EMI to justify the cost when competing sites like eMusic offered vbr tunes at higher quality at a lower cost. Steve was doing a pretty good dance at the time, but most saw it as unjustified. Today's announcement confirms that pricing error. That's 2 price corrections now, Steve.

Oct 16, 07 - 06:37 pm Comment from: dG

@DavidEGo - While you're out in the garage polishing your beloved Pinto, let your poor Mac run a Software Update please, for God's sake.

Oct 16, 07 - 08:04 pm Comment from: Apple is Always Right

It's good for competition, but I don't care.... 'cos...

1. I'll always use Apple products... so I don't care about DRM.

2.1. AAC 128kbps sounds good enough for me.
2.2. AAC 192kbps = less music on my iPod

3.1. Apple is testing consumers about... price, quality and size... before any move on the 99 cents.

Oct 16, 07 - 08:05 pm Comment from: ken1w

> But now will I be able to upgrade them for free? Methinks that feature is going to disappear.

I think you are right. I'll consider the 30 extra cents the fee for upgrading, and not having to pay 99 cents to get the better version. The only "plus" track I bought were for upgrades of tracks I previously bought at 99 cents.

Oct 16, 07 - 08:36 pm Comment from: solid

Great news, but now let's hope for a quickly expanding selection. It's pretty limited right now.

Oct 17, 07 - 01:07 am Comment from: MacSheikh

As stupid as this may sound, i'm pretty sure there'll be some dumba** planning to sue Apple over this. They're everywhere. Sheesh...

Oct 17, 07 - 01:49 am Comment from: DRM_Free

Cut the price in half and then I'll be interested. In Australia the DRM free music is virtually the same as buying a cd. Drop the price and I'll dump mp3sparks like a shot. But why do I believe that the majors won't be doing this until on their knees begging because of illegal downloads

Oct 17, 07 - 05:52 am Comment from: AmazonRules

Thanks Amazon for forcing Apple's prices down!

Oct 17, 07 - 07:58 am Comment from: Someone Else

As of Wednesday morning, there are still plenty of iTunes Plus songs that are listed at $1.29. I think reducing price is good, but increasing the + library is more important. Irony is when the song in the iPod nano commercial (1234) is DRM'ed on iTunes but MP3 on Amazon.

Oct 17, 07 - 02:14 pm Comment from: Drunk Cheney

I love how the recording industry is "competing" with Apple by opening up their own download service. As if Apple really cares how low the prices will need to go. I'm sure Apple would be just as happy to give the music away free it if meant selling more hardware.

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