With Apple announcing plans to drop DRM from its music catalog earlier today, the next question becomes: “Can I upgrade my iTunes purchases to the new format?” It turns out that you will be able to but at a cost.
The ‘Upgrade My Library’ option under Quick Links provides one-click access to do this. If a number shows up next to the menu option, iTunes has identified songs that can be upgraded. Songs in the old format will be replaced with ones in the new format with the old ones being backed up.
It will cost USD$0.30 (or CAD$0.40 in Canada) to upgrade a song and 30 percent of the album price to do an entire album.
I tried the process myself on an album and a few songs and it worked without any issues although it seemed to be quite slow.
Some 8 million of the 10 million songs available on iTunes should be available in the new format today. The last two million songs are expected by the end of March.