• GigaOm, Wednesday, January 7, 2009 12:46 PM

Most pundits agree that Apple's announcements at this year's Macworld were underwhelming, to say the least. However, GigaOm's Om Malik says there was one announcement that stood out: The news of DRM-free sales from all major music labels at variable prices through iTunes. Now, the world's largest online music store will start selling songs for 69 cents, 99 cents or $1.29 a pop.

Who cares about this? Digital rights management watchers certainly do, but what about the average consumer? Malik points out that Apple has such a stranglehold on the digital music market that most are happy to buy songs from Apple regardless of what format the songs come in, as long as they can be played on an iPod.

The more important part of the news--at least from a recording industry point of view, Malik says--is variable pricing. After resisting the pleas of the music industry for years, Apple CEO Steve Jobs has finally agreed to variable pricing; it looks like Apple has offered that in exchange for DRM-free music. However, this could prove to be a double-edged sword for the labels. While they hope to sell the bulk of their hits for $1.29, "the reality could be very different," Malik says, adding that, "they could easily wind up conditioning the market to expect even lower prices for most of the music they buy, apart from the mega-hits."

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