Apple's iTunes get cheaper

APPLE last night revealed the price of some songs in its massive iTunes library will be cut by 20p.
From April, it will create three tiers of pricing, with the cheapest at 59p.

Other tracks will cost 79p — the current price — or 99p depending on how much music labels charge the US firm.

And all its 10 million tracks will be free from digital-rights management (DRM) by March, with eight million available in the format from today.

The US technology company has signed agreements with Universal Music Group, Sony BMG, Warner Music Group, EMI and thousands of independent labels.

It was selling top albums from the likes of Girls Aloud as cheap as £3 and all tracks were in the DRM-free format. This allows them to work on any music device or computer as well as mobile phones and BlackBerrys.

But rivals say Apple's songs will continue to be in their own AAC format meaning people are still restricted where they can use them, without having to convert each file to a more common digital format like MP3 or WMA.

Internet giant Amazon kicked off a price war by launching its own music download service.



Meanwhile, an attempt to put the entire Beatles back catalogue on the internet for free has been scuppered.

Norwegian national broadcaster NRK had begun posting 212 tracks online in a series of podcasts, with each song preceded by a three-minute talk about its history.

But the feat has been quashed as it breaches an agreement with rights holders.



http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article2105066.ece