mercurynews.com — The last time Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs took on major recording companies, he refused to budge on his 99-cent price for a song on iTunes. As a new round of talks ramp up this month, however, Jobs has opened the door to higher prices?as long as music companies let Apple Inc. sell their songs without technology designed to
May 6, 2007 View in Crawl 4
unloudMay 7, 2007
Hardly. The studios can still do whatever the hell they want. The question is how they want to make money.
Closed AccountMay 7, 2007
If you want non-DRM stuff without paying the extra 30 cents, just burn it to a cd from your iTunes library and then rip it to your computer.
etandribMay 7, 2007
How about $1.29 for singles and $9.99 for albums. Did you read the article? Or any of the last 20 articles since the beginning of April about this?
begaMay 7, 2007
the only reason I use cds is because I lack an fm transmitter (at the moment, getting one soon) for my car. Otherwise, there really is no point at all.
wiseweaselMay 7, 2007
DRM-free songs helps Apple gain a foothold in music distribution by driving up the demand. I know many people, myself included, who didn't buy from the iTunes store in favor of CDs due to DRM and low sound quality. Now that they've addressed these issues, I'd expect much higher usage of the iTunes Store, to the detriment of CD sales and piracy.
carlvjackMay 7, 2007
So people who honestly buy music need to pay MORE for their music in order to be DRM free. I have purchased a ton of songs off iTunes over the last few years and this makes no sense. I know you are purchasing it for the "freedom to put it anywhere" but in all actuality we are paying for others to have the ability to share their music with others online with P2P.If in a year there is a sudden surge in iTunes music appearing on the p2p networks will this prove to the music industry that DRM is needed?
nightstrmMay 7, 2007
May isn't over yet... they've got to convert all of the EMI music over to the new DRM-free format, and ensure that previous purchases can be converted (a system must be in place to handle this). I'm sure they are working very hard to get it into place as well as hoping that others will join in before they release them.
peraltonMay 7, 2007
I use itunes a lot and feel the 99cent price is fine. I am curious if these "talks" are more to protect their european businesses which are under fire for not being inter-operable. Without DRM, we may never have had itunes sell high-profile artists. Now that digital has arrived (though still in its infancy) I think it is possible to look to non-DRM options. And yes, Apple benefits from a one-platform DRM system. Either way they win. If they stick with DRM, they keep people buying ipods. If they get non-DRM, they are hailed as the bringiners of non-DRM music.
antdudeMay 7, 2007
How about movies, especially Disney DVDs since he is part of Disney now?