Apple Strips iTunes
Tuesday, January 6, 2009 17:59
Until now, iTunes, the world’s most popular online music store, could only offer a limited number of songs from the EMI label and independents.
Now, the company of Apple is offering millions of songs free of copy protection on its iTunes digital music store, allowing the music to be played on any device. Apple has now signed deals with three of the big music labels, Warner Music Group, Sony and Universal Music Group, to sell DRM-free songs from today. In exchange Apple has agreed to a new system of tiered prices for the songs offered. With Apple finally made agreements with all the big music labels, the anti-piracy lock and key system used by the music industry finally comes to its end, indicating the end of the last bastion of digital rights management.
Eight million songs will be available from the iTunes store DRM-free, rising to more than 10 million by April. DRM-protected songs prevents music being copied, which effectively meaning that iTunes tracks could only be played on Apple products such as iPods.







