Quick! Start Downloading iTunes Before Apple Changes its Mind
Hey, what’s up with Apple? First CEO Steve Jobs gives a non-update update on his health – a hormone imbalance? – and then the company announces today it’s going to lower the price of downloading iTunes and lift some of its restrictions on copying the songs, Bloomberg reports.
This is all happening at Macworld in San Francisco. Apple said it’s not going to show up for the conference after this year, since analysts and investors always leave unimpressed, according to Bloomberg. But who cares about them anyway? Let’s move on to the iTunes news. From Bloomberg:
“„Apple Inc. the most popular source of music in the U.S., stripped copy protection from all the songs in its iTunes music store and announced plans to charge as little as 69 cents a track.
“„Under a new variable pricing plan, songs will cost 69 cents, 99 cents or $1.29 starting in April, with most albums going for $9.99, Apple marketing head Phil Schiller said today at the Macworld conference in San Francisco. He spoke in place of Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs, who said yesterday that he is undergoing treatment for a “hormone imbalance.”
“„Apple had drawn criticism for using so-called digital- rights management, or DRM, on most tracks, prompting Jobs two years ago to make a public plea to music labels to change their licensing terms. The protections prevented customers from listening to music on unauthorized devices and limited the copies they could burn onto CDs. The company also faced competition from Amazon.com Inc., which charges as little as 79 cents a song — with no copy protection.
Investors again scoffed that Apple had nothing to say and that lowering the price of iTunes was no big deal, according to Bloomberg.
Somehow, I don’t think music lovers will agree.
