Apple Inc, the most popular source of music in the US, stripped copy protection from all the songs in its iTunes music store and announced plans to charge as little as 69 cents a track.

Under a new variable pricing plan, songs will cost 69 cents, 99 cents or $1.29 starting in April, with most albums going for $9.99, Apple marketing head Phil Schiller said yesterday at the Macworld conference in San Francisco. He spoke in place of Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs, who said on Tuesday that he was undergoing treatment for a hormone imbalance.

Apple had drawn criticism for using so-called digital- rights management, or DRM, on most tracks, prompting Jobs two years ago to make a public plea to music labels to change their licensing terms. The protections prevented customers from listening to music on unauthorized devices and limited the copies they could burn onto CDs. The company also faced competition from Amazon.com Inc, which charges as little as 79 cents a song - with no copy protection. While record labels liked having DRM, they also wanted variable prices, letting them charge more for popular songs, said Barry Jaruzelski, a partner at the consulting firm Booz & Co in Florham Park, New Jersey. Until now, Apple sold most tracks for 99 cents each.

"Hot items can be priced higher - that impacted the simplicity and elegance Apple always wanted in iTunes," Jaruzelski said. The elimination of DRM and the new pricing plan means "each side getting something they wanted".

About 8 million songs will be offered without copy- protection software as part of the iTunes Plus service starting yesterday, Apple said. The other 2 million songs in its catalog will be available without such software by the end of March. Universal Music Group, Sony BMG and Warner Music Group will offer songs without copy-protection software. EMI Group Ltd started offering such tracks on iTunes in 2007. Owners of older iTunes songs that have DRM protection can upgrade to the non-DRM version for 30 cents a song, Apple said.

iTunes, introduced in 2001, has benefited from the popularity of Apple's dominant iPod music player. The service now tops Wal-Mart Stores Inc and Best Buy Inc in total music sales, according to NPD Group in Port Washington, New York.

Amazon.com, which introduced its song-downloading service in 2007, ranks fourth in music sales, according to NPD.

(China Daily/Agencies January 8, 2009)