Tiered iTunes now officially a DRM-free zone

by Stevie Smith - Apr 7 2009, 16:00

As promised by Apple late last month, the iTunes Store has today officially thrown the last remnants of Digital Rights Management (DRM) to the dogs while also introducing a new tiered pricing structure for its music content.

While all of the individual track and album purchases made through iTunes will now play on a huge variety of music and multimedia devices as opposed to just Apple-branded platforms, the store’s per-track pricing has risen to as much as $1.29 USD and fallen as low as $0.69 USD.

With the majority of individual songs expected to remain on the long-established $0.99 USD price point, extremely popular and new releases will likely hit the higher price range, while less popular and older tracks will be moved down to the lower tier.

Furthermore, Apple is keen to note that all songs available through iTunes are now served at 256kbps AAC encoding, which the Cupertino-based technology giant claims to be almost completely indistinguishable from the quality laid down during the original recording process. 

Disgruntled iTunes buyers looking to vent spleen in Apple’s direction with regard to the DRM-protected content they’ve already purchased prior to its total removal are being urged to click on ‘Upgrade to iTunes Plus’ on their next visit, which will enable customers to upgrade purchases and remove the DRM.

Note: Choosing to use iTunes Plus will, of course, come with related charges. Apple, it giveth, it taketh away.

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