Today, Apple, Inc announced that by March 2009, all 10 million songs sold through their iTunes (Etilities Forum) Music Store will be free from all Digital Rights Management (DRM) restrictions.  This will enable consumers to enjoy content they’ve purchased on all devices throughout their homes, vehicles, workplaces, and handheld devices without being limited by Apple or the supplying music studios.

As we’ve covered before, DRM can severely curtail consumers’ use of media throughout their lives.  In addition, it can hold consumers hostage to their media providers – when the provider goes out of business, or decides that maintaining DRM access is no longer a viable business service, the consumer is left without access to their music, movies, or other content.

UPDATE (9:05p EST): According to the Apple press release on these these changes, previously-purchased DRM-laden files can be “upgraded” to the newer non-DRM format for 30 cents per song, or 30% of the cost of an album file.  While that could add up for users with large music libraries, the value of removing Apple’s shackles on the content that was purchased could certainly outweigh the financial cost.

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