Is Apple trying to better compete with Universal’s recent DRM-free music strategy?.
Apple announced today that it has expanded iTunes Plus to begin offering over 2 million tracks, perhaps making it the largest DRM-free music catalog in the world outside P2P, and will also lower the price of all iTunes Plus tracks to just 99 cents.
“iTunes Plus has been incredibly popular with our customers and now we’re making it available at an even more affordable price,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of iTunes. “We’re adding over two million tracks from key independent labels in addition to EMI’s digital catalog and look forward to even more labels and artists making their music available on iTunes Plus.”
EMI began offering their catalog on iTunes Plus earlier this year, and their selection has grown to include singles and albums from the Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Norah Jones, Frank Sinatra and the solo catalogs of all four Beatles.
The move comes after Universal’s recent strategy of trying to develop an alternative to iTunes, who in its opinion is getting a disproportionate cut of each music track sold. (29cents of 99cents price). It even went so far as to partner up with Rhapsody, Wal-Mart, Google, and Best Buy to offer DRM-free versions of music only available at much higher prices on iTunes Plus.
Never one to be outdone buy the competition, Jobs seemingly decided to head of any potential challengers, as if it were eve realistic considering its marketshare, by seemingly matching the price of its competitors.
I guess this means that the next move belongs to Universal.
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