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.
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.
Apple, of Cupertino, Calif., introduced iTunes Plus with music from EMI in May, in one of the most significant moves yet to abandon the anti-copying software that record companies once believed could help solve online piracy of music. But even with the advent of digital sales of music protected by DRM, piracy flourished. In the meantime, Apple came under growing criticism from various European consumer agencies and legislators because the company’s hit iPod music players didn’t work with most online rivals of the iTunes Store because of incompatible DRM systems, pressure that eased as more recording companies have begun selling music in the popular MP3 format without anti-copying software.
Source: WSJ.com