DRM- The Curse Is Lifted!

So Razor X on the 9513 forums (here) pointed out a big announcement from Apple that was released today at the Macworld Expo. He linked the article here, and I found one part very interesting.

There were basically two major announcements. The first being that iTunes is going DRM free, with 8 million tracks starting today, and all of them by the end of 2009′s first quarter. Most of you know what this means, but for those who don’t, it means that now music bought off iTunes can be used on an unlimited number of computers.

Honestly, that doesn’t really affect me because I still buy CD’s primarily, except for the occasional track that I don’t want its respective album. The other announcement is fairly large too, namely the changing of iTunes prices. Instead of the flat 99 cents per track, there are now 3 “tiers” consisting of 99 cents, 69 cents, and $1.29.

This could be good or bad depending on how it works. Does iTunes decide the price of a song or does the label/artist? How is it decided? Can the prices change over time? I think it will be good because if they lower the price on tracks further, maybe people will buy more often and not steal music. Who knows!

I think it could be cool if older music was made cheaper, especially albums that are out of print and hard to get. Then they can be more accessible and easier for a poor student like me to get legally.

So for tonight, I want to know:

What do you think of these announcements? Are they good or bad? Will they affect how you buy music or not? Do you even care?

I’m just curious to see if huge hits that get a ton of downloads, a prominent example being “Love Story” by Taylor Swift, end up costing more, which would just anger buyers. It should be interesting for sure.

Spotlight Artist: Miss Leslie and her Juke-Jointers

The music of Miss Leslie and her Juke-Jointers is a throwback to the hard honky tonk sound made popular in the 1950s and 60s in country music. The self-proclaimed ‘hardwood floor sound’ of her kind of country music suits us here at My Kind of Country perfectly. Miss Leslie is definitely our kind of country. So, with that said, My Kind Of Country is proud to announce that Miss Leslie and her Juke-Jointers will be our inaugural ‘Spotlight Artist’ for the month of January. We’ll be reviewing her music throughout the month, and will have an exclusive interview with her in the coming weeks.

You don’t know who Miss Leslie is, you say? You’ve never heard her music? Well, we have the solution for that. Actually, Miss Leslie has the solution, but we’re going to point you to this solution. In an unprecedented move, Miss Leslie is offering you her latest album – ‘Between the Whiskey and the Wine’ – for free. All you have to do is request it at her official website here.  And this isn’t just a free digital download of her music, this is a physical copy of the CD, and autographed at that.  She will mail it to you for free – you don’t even have to pay postage if you live in the U.S. – the cost is $4 for international orders.   All she asks is that you help spread the word about the fabulous and authentic country music being made by this lady.

So stay tuned to My Kind of Country throughout the month of January and we’ll immerse you in the hard-core honky tonk of Miss Leslie and her Juke-Jointers.

And if you just can’t wait for the snail mail to deliver your copy of Miss Leslie’s CD, you can check out most of the tracks on her MySpace page here.