Apple to sell songs without DRM restrictions

Apple has agreed to start selling songs from its popular iTunes store without DRM (digital rights management) copy protection. The restriction, which allowed users to share downloads on 5 computers owned by them but restricted them to use an Apple iPod, was designed to prevent users from illegally sharing digital downloads.

In what seems to be a purely commercial decision Apple is changing its copy protection restrictions in the hope of selling more music to users that do not use Apple iPods or iPhones for playing their music, or who have several such machines and want to swap their purchases between them.

In the past there have been third party apps available that have been moderately successful in removing the DRM from iTunes downloads, but this is the first time that Apple have purported to be seriously considering the idea themselves. No doubt they have had a lot of convincing to do; to show the record labels that it is worth the risk.

Apple have also announced plans to vary the price of songs at the Macworld Expo trade show in San Francisco that is on 4th-8th January. Instead of the current 79p cost of downloading a song from iTunes, buyers will be charged 59p, 79p or 99p depending on a number of factors including which record label the track comes from.