You're viewing an article in iPO's historic archive vault. Here, we've preserved the comments and how the site looked along with the article. Use this link to view the article on our current site: Apple Launches DRM-free Music with iTunes Plus

News

Apple Launches DRM-free Music with iTunes Plus

Apple officially rolled out its higher quality music offerings without copy protection on Wednesday in the form of iTunes Plus. iTunes Plus tracks will be encoded at 256kbps AAC instead of at the standard 128kbps AAC that Apple has been selling ever since the iTunes Store was launched.

iTunes Plus is launching with EMI's music library including Pink Floyd, Frank Sinatra, The Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney's classic albums, and more. Apple CEO Steve Jobs expects that over half of the music available through the iTunes Store will be offered in iTunes Plus format before the end of the year.

iTunes Plus tracks will be priced at US$1.29, and the standard FairPlay copy protected tracks will remain at $0.99. iTunes Store customers that have previously purchased tracks at the lower fidelity 128kbps format can upgrade to iTunes Plus tracks for US$0.30 per song, or $3.00 for most albums.

EMI is also offering iTunes Plus versions of its music video collection. Video pricing remains unchanged at $1.99.


Warning: include(/var/www/bbm/ipodobserver.com/htdocs/comments/includes/constants.php) [function.include]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /var/www/bbm/ipodobserver.com/htdocs/comments/common.php on line 188

Warning: include() [function.include]: Failed opening '/var/www/bbm/ipodobserver.com/htdocs/comments/includes/constants.php' for inclusion (include_path='.:/usr/share/php5:/usr/share/php') in /var/www/bbm/ipodobserver.com/htdocs/comments/common.php on line 188

Warning: include(/var/www/bbm/ipodobserver.com/htdocs/comments/includes/template.php) [function.include]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /var/www/bbm/ipodobserver.com/htdocs/comments/common.php on line 189

Warning: include() [function.include]: Failed opening '/var/www/bbm/ipodobserver.com/htdocs/comments/includes/template.php' for inclusion (include_path='.:/usr/share/php5:/usr/share/php') in /var/www/bbm/ipodobserver.com/htdocs/comments/common.php on line 189

Warning: include(/var/www/bbm/ipodobserver.com/htdocs/comments/includes/sessions.php) [function.include]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /var/www/bbm/ipodobserver.com/htdocs/comments/common.php on line 190

Warning: include() [function.include]: Failed opening '/var/www/bbm/ipodobserver.com/htdocs/comments/includes/sessions.php' for inclusion (include_path='.:/usr/share/php5:/usr/share/php') in /var/www/bbm/ipodobserver.com/htdocs/comments/common.php on line 190

Warning: include(/var/www/bbm/ipodobserver.com/htdocs/comments/includes/auth.php) [function.include]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /var/www/bbm/ipodobserver.com/htdocs/comments/common.php on line 191

Warning: include() [function.include]: Failed opening '/var/www/bbm/ipodobserver.com/htdocs/comments/includes/auth.php' for inclusion (include_path='.:/usr/share/php5:/usr/share/php') in /var/www/bbm/ipodobserver.com/htdocs/comments/common.php on line 191

Warning: include(/var/www/bbm/ipodobserver.com/htdocs/comments/includes/functions.php) [function.include]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /var/www/bbm/ipodobserver.com/htdocs/comments/common.php on line 192

Warning: include() [function.include]: Failed opening '/var/www/bbm/ipodobserver.com/htdocs/comments/includes/functions.php' for inclusion (include_path='.:/usr/share/php5:/usr/share/php') in /var/www/bbm/ipodobserver.com/htdocs/comments/common.php on line 192

Warning: include(/var/www/bbm/ipodobserver.com/htdocs/comments/includes/db.php) [function.include]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /var/www/bbm/ipodobserver.com/htdocs/comments/common.php on line 193

Warning: include() [function.include]: Failed opening '/var/www/bbm/ipodobserver.com/htdocs/comments/includes/db.php' for inclusion (include_path='.:/usr/share/php5:/usr/share/php') in /var/www/bbm/ipodobserver.com/htdocs/comments/common.php on line 193

Fatal error: Call to undefined function encode_ip() in /var/www/bbm/ipodobserver.com/htdocs/comments/common.php on line 204