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Free at last, free at last?

DRM-free, that is. April 7 is the official date when “all” of the music offered through iTunes is supposed to be free of Digital Rights Management (DRM). As with so much with Apple, this is both accurate and incomplete.

Certainly every song for sale from this date forth is DRM-free. What tech writers, reviewers, critics, and consumers are discovering, however, is that iTunes library has shrunk. There are tunes that are simply no longer available. So if you downloaded a DRM-protected file, there’s a possibility that you won’t be able to upgrade that tune to DRM-free; it’s simply not offered any more.

And I’m wondering how Apple’s variable pricing is going to work. I’m also wondering how critics who complained about Microsoft’s tiered pricing scheme will react. Is it okay now that Apple is doing it? Amazon has had variable pricing from the get-go, but I’m sure someone somewhere complained about that, too.

What’s interesting is that you can easily shop for cheap music at Amazon. The same can’t be said for iTunes. Ars Technica reported it needed Apple’s help to find a couple of albums offering songs at the new 69-cents per track costing. If a tech-savvy writer can’t find cheap music, what chance does the average user have?

No doubt it will improve. This is only day one, after all. In the long-term, though, I wonder how this will work out for Apple. Ars Technica also demoed that some music is now more expensive on iTunes relative to Amazon. Yes, it takes a wee bit more to get the music from Amazon, but you’re saving 30-cents a track. I think the extra click(s) are worth it.

The iTunes/iPod eco-system remains formidable, but it was formerly invulnerable due to DRM. DRM is now history, which makes that eco-system vulnerable. The consumer now has access to at least three major sources of music on-line: iTunes, Amazon, and eMusic. There’s also Rhapsody (where I found, of all things, the out-of-print soundtrack to Hell and High Water; amazing) and the Zune Marketplace (which is 90% DRM-free, and should be completely DRM-free Real Soon Now). Beyond these you can find a staggering variety of specialty shops (Deutshe Grammaphon comes to mind).

In the end, it’s all good. I might even re-install iTunes so I can go shopping if/when I want. I’d prefer everyone to adopt something like the Amazon web-based system, so I don’t have to install all this software, but hey, it’s great to have the options.

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