Macworld: The iTunes Music Store gets a refresh

As of Tuesday, on the basis of a new arrangement with the major labels, iTunes moved to a 3-tiered pricing structure ($0.69, $0.99, and $1.29), with 80 percent of its 10 million tracks (at 256 kbits) available DRM-free and the other 20 percent to follow by the end of the quarter.

iTunes is still the number one channel for online music sales in the world, continuing to beat Amazon and Walmart. It has sold over 6 billion songs and has 75 million unique credit-card customers. Recently it offered an "iTunes Plus" section, where the tracks were DRM-free, but usually at a higher price.

I'm sure a lot of people in the larger universe applaud the new pricing structure and dumping of DRM. It just didn't hit the peak applause meter inside Moscone. But then, one has to first grasp the concept of DRM before the meaning of the announcement becomes clear.

People with iPods who download music regularly get it. Casual iTunes users (and maybe more than a few Macworld attendees) who play vintage 'Stones CDs at home may not. But digital customers have been clamoring for DRM-free, tiered-pricing for years (like they already get at Amazon), so this comes as welcome news. Plus, if it restores interest in iTunes for Limewire users and others who operate outside the music industry’s reach, the RIAA might be happier, too.

That's it for the major Keynote announcements.

Of course, it wouldn't be a Macworld Keynote without a musical guest to close the show. For this last time it was grand old crooner Tony Bennett, singing "The Best is Yet to Come", and his classic "I Left My Heart in San Francisco."

After the Keynote, I got a look at some of HP's new products and took in events sponsored by VMWare and Microsoft's Mac Business Unit.

More on those to come.

—Thomas A. Olson