A good portion of the iTunes crowd breathed a sigh of relief last week, when it was announced that iTunes downloads would become DRM free. Since that time, more details have been announced or leaked about some of the outcomes of iTunes going DRM free.

For those who like to “share” their music, you might have thought become DRM free would be a godsend. You might want to postpone on uploading your library as Apple has a system in place that can still protect their music from piracy. Encoded on each individual track is your account information. So, even though the music can be transferred to many devices, your trail is still left on the file.

[via: Cnet.co.uk]

iTunes, and iPod owners have been begging for it, and Apple has finally delivered. As of yesterday, Apple is allowing iTunes users to download their music free of DRM. The change comes by way of iTunes Plus. For those who want to have their current library DRM-free, Apple is offering another solution as well. With iTunes Plus, users can upgrade their current library to DRM-free at $0.30/song.

The other big change coming to iTunes is the pricing structure, which will take place in March. Instead of having all the music at the standard $0.99/song, there will be three tiers. Depending on the label, and age of the track the new prices are, $0.69, $0.99, and $1.29.

There’s yet even more changes for iTunes, as it is now compatible with the 3G network. So, all of you iPhone users now have the ability to download iTunes tracks over wi-fi on your 3G connection.

Has anyone tried out the downloads over the 3G network to see if they’re working properly? What do you think of the DRM-free solution implemented by Apple? Will the new pricing tier be more cost effective for the consumer in the long run?

Kevin Rose is famous/infamous among the Apple community. He seems to get information before anyone, and is a pretty big thorn in Steve Jobs’ side. He now has new information released about the new up and coming iPod Nano.

- Revamp of entire iPod line.
- Small cosmetic changes to Touch, Nano to see significant redesign (see pic below).
- iPods to see fairly large price drops to distance itself from the $199 iPhone.
- iPod touch 2.1 software, iPhone to get update very soon after.
- iTunes 8.0 (“it’s a big update w/new features”).
- All of this coming in the next 2-3 weeks.

Here is a video of Kevin Rose explaining some of these new updates.

[via: Kevin Rose]

For iPhone or iPod Touch users, some of the biggest news to surface on the devices has landed (atleast in my opinion). It looks as though Apple is applying for a patent on a technology that would stream your iTunes library automatically to your handheld device.

As of now, if you want your favorite songs to play on your iPhone or iPod Touch, you have to transfer the music files to your handheld. With the new patent, users could instead just set up a stream so their iTunes library could play through Wi-Fi or cellular networks.

Apple hasn’t released any comments on any future uses for the patent. They have been able to pull off a similar feat with Apple TV, streaming iTunes over local wifi. Hopefully more details will be released soon about this much wanted advancement.

Back in April, iTunes took the lead as music retailer from Wal-Mart. The first half of year is now officially over, and iTunes is still in command of the lead. According to the NPD’s latest release of music retail rankings from January 08 – June 08, iTunes remains on top while Amazon moved up from the fifth spot, to fourth place.

1. iTunes
2. Wal-Mart (Walmart, Walmart.com, Walmart Music Downloads)
3. Best Buy (Best Buy, Bestbuy.com, Best Buy Digital Music Store)
4. Amazon (Amazon.com, AmazonMP3.com)
5. Target (Target and Target.com)

Russ Crupnick, an analyst of NPD had this to say about the recent rankings, “We expect Apple will consolidate its lead in the retail music market, as CD sales continue to slow” … (on the rise of Amazon from #5 to #4) “Amazon’s CD buyers tend to be older, so they haven’t abandoned the CD format to the extent seen in the average music buyer. Plus Amazon’s successful introduction of its digital download store will help the company improve its position in the future”

Rhapsody has officially announced the DRM-free MP3 store today. According to Rhapsody it was because of the incompatibility to the iPod that hurt their market share. Before this announcement, Rhapsody was a purely subscription based company. You could stream all sorts of songs on your computer, but could never put them on a music player.

The new MP3 store has a normal pricing structure at /$.99 person, and an album being $9.99. They boast a 5 million song library which will all have MP3 files available to download. While this might just sound like another carbon copy of other music download services, Rhapsody offers full track previews instead of 30 second clips.