Apple has quietly updated its DRM upgrade policy on iTunes. According to iLounge, folks wishing to strip digital rights management protection from their songs no longer have to convert their entire music library—they can now do it track by track.
Upgrades still cost 30 cents a track, and as far as we can tell, they still bump songs from 128Kbps to 256Kbps quality. 30 cents a track for a handful of albums shouldn’t amount to much, but Apple’s previous all-or-nothing policy incurred some hefty charges for some users. One Gizmodo editor said he would have had to cough up a staggering $250 to strip copy protection from his 52-album music library.
In case you missed the big news, Apple effectively put the last nail in the coffin of music DRM at Macworld earlier this month. Eight million DRM-free songs from all four major record labels immediately became available on the iTunes Store, and Apple revealed plans to make the entire iTunes catalog DRM-free by the end of March. Unprotected tracks can cost as little as $0.69 and as much as $1.29.