iTunes Plus Upgrades Now Available on a Per-Track Basis

Macworld notes that Apple has instituted a new feature that allows iTunes Store users to upgrade their music libraries to iTunes Plus tracks on either a per-track or per-album basis.

At Macworld San Francisco, Apple announced a number of changes to the iTunes Store, including the immediate removal of digital rights management (DRM) from approximately 80% of available songs and the option for owners of songs containing DRM to upgrade to the DRM-free versions for a fee. At the time, Apple touted the ability for users to upgrade their entire libraries with a single click, but this method was the only one provided by Apple for users to upgrade their music libraries. This generated a number of complaints from users who only wanted to upgrade a portion of their libraries, but were faced with an all-or-nothing option.

This new policy provides users with additional flexibility to upgrade portions of their libraries, but does require that album purchases be upgraded as an entire album rather than allowing upgrades of individual tracks from a purchased album.

Macworld readers have also noted a few problems that have resulted in users being charged full price instead of the upgrade price, and they have recommended turning on 1-Click purchasing until Apple addresses this issue.