Apple: All iTunes Songs to Drop Copy Protection; $.69 Per Tune Prices; Cellular Music Downloads to iPhone

Apple ( AAPL ) may soon be offering more songs on its iTunes music store that are not copy-protected, according to multiple sources reporting this morning. The Wall Street Journal runs an article on its Web site, citing “people familiar,” reporting that “Apple Inc. is set to unveil a series of changes to its iTunes Store that represent significant shifts in its longstanding approach to the business of selling songs online” (Subscription required to read Journal articles.) Specifically, Apple may drop the almost uniform 99 cent price for songs. “Under a new pricing plan, songs would cost either 69 cents, 99 cents or $1.29, depending on how desirable they are considered. Apple is likely to sell the “vast majority” of the songs for 69 cents, these people said,” the Journal reports. The Journal says Apple may add tunes from Sony’s (SNE) Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Vivendi SA’s Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group to music from EMI Group Ltd. that contains no “digital rights ... (link)