iTunes cuts charge for unprotected song tracks
SAN FRANCISCO - Apple Inc. plans to lower the price of music sold without copyright protection to 99 cents a song, undercutting rivals less than five months after adding those tracks to its iTunes store.
The price cut, from $1.29, applies to music without so-called digital rights management software from EMI Group PLC as well as 2 million songs from independent labels, Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr said yesterday. Apple began offering DRM-free music as part of a service called "iTunes Plus" on May 30.
The reduction comes after Amazon.com Inc. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. began selling on their download music services restriction-free tracks for less than Apple. Consumers have bought more than 3 billion songs from iTunes since April 2003, making it the most popular site for legal music downloads.
"With Amazon stepping into the game and offering DRM-free music at a cheaper price, it gives Apple no option but to match that price," said James McQuivey, a digital-media analyst with Forrester Research Inc. "ITunes is a very powerful force and that's one of the reasons that Amazon is trying to get into the market, because they know the labels may be trying to back someone as an alternative to Apple."
The company will change the pricing on the DRM-free tracks over the next few days. Apple will continue to sell songs that artists and labels want copy-protected for 99 cents, Neumayr said. ITunes has more than 6 million tracks.
In February, Apple chief executive Steve Jobs called on the four major music labels - EMI, Universal Music Group, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, and Warner Music Group Corp. - to let Apple remove copy-protection software from iTunes tracks. The four control 70 percent of the world's music.
Apple accounted for 70 percent of all online music sales last year and is the third-largest music retailer in the United States behind Wal-Mart and Best Buy Co., according to market researcher NPD Group Inc.
