Apple recently completed the upgrade of its iTunes music store to the new iTunes Plus standard. This means that when you shell out for music on iTunes, you’ll now be getting higher-quality files that can be freely copied — for backups, not for sharing — without the technical restrictions known as “digital rights management,” or DRM, getting in the way.

Unfortunately, it also means that you can’t count on a consistent 99-cent price point for all music anymore. As part of the deal with the recording industry to offer iTunes Plus songs in the entire music store, Apple agreed to abandon its hard-line strategy on pricing and to allow two new prices: one lower, at 69 cents, and one higher at $1.29.

In theory, this should be balanced out: “Oldies but goodies” and the more obscure Indie bands should come in at the lower price point while the most hip, popular songs come in at the higher one. If something isn’t selling at the higher point, the laws of economics would dictate that it should fall to one of the lower levels.

However, this is certainly not a fair and competitive market, so who knows what the final outcome will be. If the record labels abuse the new pricing structure, leaving songs at $1.29 for overly-extended periods of time, people that would have purchased at 99 cents will either decide that the music being pushed at them is not worth the cost to download, thus limiting exposure for new bands; or they will turn to the much-hyped road of software piracy, depriving the labels of any revenue and further engendering a climate where copyright infringement of music is not taken seriously by the people.

Either of these roads is bad for the music industry and for musicians, so let’s hope that recording executives use their newfound pricing freedom responsibly. In the meantime, iTunes Plus is definitely worth a look: Audiophiles will enjoy the improved sound quality, and technophiles the lack of restricting DRM. There’s something for everyone in this transition provided Apple can prevent abuses and keep costs reasonable for their customers.