Apple could allow higher prices on iTunes for DRM Free songs

Apple has been against raising the prices of the songs sold on their iTunes service (99 cents) in their talks with the music industry.

However, their recent deal with EMI has shown that the company might allow the music companies to price the songs higher if they are not served with DRM technology.

Selling songs without DRM would let the company cater to a larger audience as most of the songs currently sold on Apple iTunes can be played on the Apple iPod media player only.

However, music industry executives have been saying that selling songs without DRM could lead to online piracy as the user would be allowed to duplicate the song and share it with friends.

It is still to be seen whether EMI suffers from their recent decision of selling DRM free songs on iTunes for a slightly increased price tag.

Michael Gartenberg, an analyst with Jupiter Research spoke on this issue: “At this point, no one can ignore Apple or what Apple wants, given its position in the marketplace. The fact that they were able to do this deal with EMI puts more pressure on some of the other labels to follow suit.”

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