iTunes, the music store, was started in 2003. And now, in less than six years, they've sold 6 billion songs.

There's 10 million songs available, and there's 75 million accounts with credit cards.

Now, iTunes is the number one channel with music in the United States.

What's new? Three things.

First, the price. In the last six years, they've had one pricing model for the entire market. There's now three pricing tiers. $0.99 cents, $0.69 cents, and $1.29. Depending on how the music labels offer music, Apple will price accordingly. This comes in April.

Second, iTunes Plus. It's the way that Apple offers music DRM-free. You can play it on as many computers as you own, and has 256 kbps AAC encoding (better encoded). You can upgrade your entire purchased library to iTunes plus.

Starting today, 8 million (of 10 million) songs are now DRM free. By the end of Q1 2009, all 10 million songs in iTunes will be DRM free.

The third new thing is with the iPhone.

Now, the iTunes Wi-Fi music store is compatible with 3G, meaning it's just called the iTunes music store. It's the same price as on the Wi-Fi, the same selection, downloadable anywhere you are. (Same quality as well).

You can purchase or preview music anywhere, and sync the music back to your computer when you get home, same as you did before. This starts today.

Source[Gizmodo Live]

And people said the online music model would never work. I also say, about time for DRM-Free music. I wonder what this means for Napster and other DRM-Music stores.