San Francisco - Apple on Tuesday announced the biggest
changes in the history of its iTunes online media store, saying it
would offer the vast majority of songs without copy restrictions and
at three price levels rather than the current 99-cent flat rate.
Apple also announced that it would begin offering iPhone owners
the ability to download songs directly over cellular 3G networks for
the same price as downloading the songs via their computers.
Until Tuesday, most of the more than 10 million songs on the
iTunes catalogue were hampered by digital right management (DRM)
software, which limited users' freedom to transfer them to other
devices.
The new format, available immediately, is called iTunes Plus and
will do away with these restrictions.
By April, Apple will introduce its new pricing policy. Most songs
will be available for 69 cents per track, but the most popular and
recent songs, which account for most downloads, will cost 1.29
dollars. Other songs will still be available at the old price of 99
cents.
'We are thrilled to be able to offer our iTunes customers DRM-free
iTunes Plus songs in high quality audio and our iPhone 3G customers
the ability to download music from iTunes anytime, anywhere over
their 3G network at the same price as downloading to your computer or
via Wi-Fi,' said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO.
The iTunes store is the world's most popular online music, TV and
movie store with a catalogue of more than 10 million songs, 30,000 TV
episodes and 2,500 films including more than 600 in high definition
video.
Apple says the service has sold 6 billion songs since going online
in 2003, and that more than 75 million accounts with credit cards
have been created.
USA
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