DRM Free iTunes Music Store To Be A Boon For Third Party Music Players?

With Apple’s announcement at Macworld this year that all music on the iTunes Music Store would be free of digital rights management comes a real chance for third party media players to finally compete against the iPod.  Many have attributed the iPod’s success to the high quality feel and ease of use of the iTunes program and its accompanying store; now the music store is no longer tied exclusively to the iPod. 

While that doesn’t mean that iTunes will suddenly start syncing music and videos to third party players, it does mean that those third party players no longer need to try and create competing music stores or make partnerships with music services in order to have a shot against the iPod.  They only need to create simple software to move music from the iTunes music folder to their players, which they should be able to do without needing to resort to programs like RealPlayer, MusicMatch, or Windows Media Player. 

None of the competing music stores have ever really caught on and there is now no reason to even bother with them.