Digital Home Thoughts: iTunes to Vary Pricing And Go DRM Free

"Under the new pricing scheme, most music tracks will still cost $0.99, but labels will be able to charge $1.29 for selected tracks—mostly hot new releases—and offer discounts of $0.69 on older library tracks."

iTunes is going to go through two significant changes in the coming months. Pricing is no longer going to be a $0.99 a song setup, with prices ranging from $0.69 to $1.29. I really hope that the record labels won't do what I would expect them to do, which is noting any song that's selling and put it in the $1.29 tier. Overall, I'm not sure whether this will be good for the consumer or not, but I can't think that the labels would push for variable pricing so much if they didn't see more profit in it for themselves. What is more notable to me is that by the end of the quarter, it is expected that iTunes music will go DRM free! While it seems the vast majority don't mind being locked down to specific devices, I think it'll just drive more traffic to the iTunes store with everyone now able to listen to their library on any device they want.