Apple's iTunes music store has come out with a brand new pricing plan, in an attempt to appease angry music industry executives. Music big-wigs have long ciriticised the 99 cents structure for songs, along with the DRM (digital-rights management) issue. Under the new pricing plan, which is scheduled to take effect April 1, back catalog tracks will be available for 69 cents, current songs for 99 cents and the price of hit singles will be raised to $1.29. Apple also stated that the remeaining big three lables, Sony BMG, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group will now allow songs to be sold without the controversial digital-rights management copy protection coding, that limits the amount of music players a song can be used on. EMI has allowed their music to be sold DRM-free since 2007. Apple stated that 8 of its 10 million songs are currently available DRM-free, and the remaining two million will be offered code-free by the end of March.
No word as of yet on what will happen with songs that have already been purchased.
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