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SAN FRANCISCO - Apple Inc. is cutting the price of some songs in its market-leading iTunes online store to as little as 69 cents and plans to make every track available without copy protection.
In Apple's final appearance at the Macworld trade show, Apple's top marketing executive, Philip Schiller, said Tuesday that iTunes song prices will come in three tiers: 69 cents, 99 cents and $1.29. Record companies will choose the prices; Apple previously made all songs sell for 99 cents.
Apple gave record labels that flexibility on pricing as it got them to agree to sell all songs free of "digital rights management," or DRM, technology, that limits people's ability to copy songs or move them to multiple computers. Apple had been offering a limited selection of songs without DRM, but by quarter's end, it said, all 10 million songs in its library will be available that way. While iTunes is the most popular digital music store, others have been faster to offer more songs without copy protection.
Lower iTunes prices were Apple's only nod to the recession -- and an oblique one at that, as record labels have been asking for years to set varying song prices.
Rather than an inexpensive new Mac to lure budget-conscious buyers, Schiller unveiled a $2,800 Macbook Pro laptop with a 17-inch screen and the sleek aluminum casing used in the super-thin Macbook Air.
He also unwrapped new versions of two software packages for Macs, including the iLife multimedia programs. For instance, iPhoto '09 can recognize faces and sort photos based on who's in them. GarageBand '09 includes videotaped, interactive music lessons given by Sting and other musicians. Apple added more professional video editing features to iMovie '09.
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