May 08
Higher Prices for DRM Free Music
CNN reported yesterday that Apple is looking to charge higher prices for songs on iTunes, with the caveat that these songs be w/o the DRM technology and that they also be of higher quality than regularly priced songs. Personally, I’m kind of divided on this.
On one hand, one of my biggest gripes with iTunes is that they really try to hinder the user in that they don’t let them easy port songs from iTunes to other media players. With this newly proposed deal, it would obviously be easier to play your songs on other devices. Now, this still doesn’t alleviate the pain of still having to use iTunes, but I guess when you buy an iPod, those are the breaks.
On the other hand, I’m really not sure that iPod’s user base will pony up the extra money to get these tracks. I could be WAY off on this, but I think most of the people who get music onto their iPod aren’t going to be able to tell the difference between what they’re listening to now and these higher quality versions. I DO however think that they’ll see the difference in price and just stay with the cheaper version. Furthermore, I think the people who DO understand the difference in quality and can also tell that difference are probably savvy enough to get their music TO their iPod and OTHER music devices in high quality and cheaply anyway.
Check out CNN’s article here.