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iTunes price hike starts today
I messed up. My big plans to stock up on all my new favorite tunes yesterday got sidetracked, so I missed the last chance to raid the iTunes store before the big price hike. What about you?
Instead of the $0.99 for most songs and $1.29 for iTunes Plus DRM-free tracks at a higher quality, iTunes has put in variable pricing for all their songs, with tracks going for either $0.69, $0.99 or $1.29 each. All songs are DRM-free as well as being encoded at 256kbps. What determines the price? Simple supply and demand. New releases, popular tracks, and timeless classics will have the higher price, while unknown artists and, well, less popular tunes will have the bargain-basement price. Trust me, you'll have to search really hard to find anything worthwhile in the $0.69 category.
Through this all, competitor Amazon.com still sells high-quality 256kbps DRM-free MP3 files, compatible with almost every player around, for $0.89. You have to ask if iTunes, which had successfully changed the way people stole bought music, is now shooting the legal music business in the foot. By charging more for popular songs, you're just tempting people to find ways to avoid those noticeably higher fees.
For now, I'm going shopping at Amazon.com.
Via iTunes
By Scopi at 9:41 PM ON 04/07/09
I guess the funny thing is that you think it was Apple's decision to do variable pricing. It was the music labels, as you now know if you're actually shopping at Amazon. New tracks are showing up for $1.29 there too!
Apple doesn't care about selling music, except as a way to sell iPods. They'd give away the music for free if they could. By all accounts Apple had to fight to keep all tracks at .99, and Amazon was only allowed to sell music cheaper because the labels were afraid of becoming to beholden to Apple. Now that Apple has caved on pricing, Amazon's days of preferential treatment are over.
By Al at 4:25 PM ON 04/08/09
Wow. Someone hates apple.
Something tells me iPod is just another four letter word to this individual.
By Yogurt at 1:52 AM ON 04/09/09
I don't know if I'm the one confused or if Leslie is but let's try to clear it up.
Apple originally sold higher quality songs for 1.29 a song. Now they are selling MORE higher quality songs for 1.29 a song and this is a price hike?
Where's the hike? The 69 cent songs are cheaper than ever and the 99 cent songs are what we are used to. Same thing with the 1.29 songs.
Apple is providing a better quality product for the same price or lower price. No hike, just a lot of anti-apple bias from DVICE.
By Wintersdance at 11:46 PM ON 04/09/09
Sad thing with iTunes is that all the J-rock groups I bought no longer are sold on iTunes. They have alot of albums removed now because of not being able to get their music from Japan DRM free :(
way to go iTunes and losing their J-rock / J-pop selections :(
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Wintersdance:
Sad thing with iTunes is that all the J-rock groups I bought no longer are sold on iTunes. They have alot of albums...More »