With the announcements about new versions of the company's photo management software and an update to its productivity suite, Apple started off its final Macworld trade show in San Francisco yesterday. However, it should be noted here that people were more amazed and talked about the company's "one last thing", which was that now songs by ITunes would be sold without any restrictions and at three prices: 69 cents, 99 cents and $1.29.

It was announced by Philip W. Schiller, Apple's vice president of worldwide marketing, during the keynote, that music from four major record companies would be available through iTunes without the anti-piracy restrictions, letting Apple to move away from a uniform price plan in which all songs were offered at a standard rate of 99 cents.

From the very beginning of the digital music era, software restrictions on song files have been around, since few music publishers sought technological means to keep their products from being easily circulated by pirates on the Web.

Other than this, in past few years, some iTunes rivals such as Amazon. com began offering songs that are free from such "digital rights management" controls. Back in
2007, record label EMI agreed to let Apple sell its music free from anti-copying restrictions, however, other major labels had been slower to allow their music to be sold DRM-free.

"The move represents an industry shift toward song file formats that can be easily copied or played on any digital music device," said Phil Leigh, senior analyst at the Tampa-based market research firm Inside Digital Media.

It would be worth noticing here that customers who have already purchased songs from iTunes will be able to pay 30 cents per song to upgrade their iTunes music collection to a restriction-free format if they choose.