DRM-free for Under a Buck on iTunes

Getting tired of paying too much for your online music? Most iTunes fans are, what with the competition now offering Digital Rights Management, or DRM free files for under a buck. Finally, it seems Apple is ready to do the same, announcing that DRM-free music will soon be made available for $0.99.

Yeah, we know...Apple has been offering digital music downloads for $0.99 all along, right? Wrong. It's been offering music with minimal transfer abilities for under a buck, and until this recent initiative that meant limited ability in copying tunes to different computers and digital media devices.

What is Digital Rights Management?

Otherwise known as DRM, Digital Rights Management is a way for artists and music labels to protect the copyright of their files. Microsoft's site defines it as "a proven platform to protect and securely deliver content for playback on computers, portable devices, and network devices." (Source: microsoft.com)

In the real world, that just means you can only copy songs to one computer, or perhaps two devices.

The idea of wiping DRM from downloaded music has been floating around for some time. Hungry competitors to the popular iTunes, like Wal-Mart, have recently announced plans to undercut Apple by offering DRM-free music for $0.94 a song. Limewire, now in legal form, is also offering DRM-free music for $0.99. For a while, it looked as if the iPod maker was going to lose its market share over the files flooding its hardware. (Source: dailytech.com)

The announcement remains unofficial, and media reports from sites like Wired still find that the DRM-free Apple option remains over a dollar for some songs. Still, it makes perfect sense for the decrease in price, given the momentum of the competition in undertaking such initiative. It just might take some time for each and every song to reach that reasonable plateau.

Stay calm, iPod and iPhone fans. You'll soon have you tune and pay less for it, too.