Apple cuts iTunes prices to 69 cents

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Apple Inc. is cutting the price of some songs in its market-leading iTunes online music store to 69 cents and plans to begin selling all tracks without copy protection.

At the Macworld trade show Tuesday, Apple's top marketing executive, Philip Schiller, said iTunes songs would come in three pricing tiers: 69 cents, 99 cents and $1.29, depending on the recording company they come from.

He also said Apple worked with all the major record labels to get songs free of "digital rights management" technology that limits people's ability to copy songs or move them to different devices.