Tiered iTunes Pricing

Friday, Sep. 2 2005 | Author: Dave

It looks like Apple is losing support from the greedy music industry as they line up to try to force him into a tiered pricing system based on the age of the song and popularity.

Two and a half years after the music business lined up behind the chief executive of Apple, Steven Jobs, and hailed him and his iTunes music service for breathing life into music sales, the industry’s allegiance to Jobs has eroded sharply.

Jobs is now girding for a showdown with at least two of the four major record companies over the price of songs on the iTunes service.

If he loses, the one-price model that iTunes has adopted–99 cents to download any song–could be replaced with a more complex structure that prices songs by popularity. A hot new single, for example, could sell for $1.49, while a golden oldie could go for substantially less than 99 cents.

I think this is a bit rediculous. I do think that older songs should go for less, but I don’t think they should raise the rate of newer songs to $1.49 a song as this increase will probably hinder iTunes growth and aggrivate the current user base. Would you pay $1.49 for a single song?

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6 Responses for "Tiered iTunes Pricing"

Justin

September 2nd, 2005 at 1:45 pm
1

CD sales went down because the price went up and the quality of the music went down. $0.99 per song was a decent compromise for most music. If the price goes back up and the quality stays low for “hot new singles,” then no, I wouldn’t buy ‘em.
David

September 2nd, 2005 at 1:47 pm
2

What would be your alternative? Back to illegal filesharing? Trading CD’s with friends? Would you change to another network like Napster?
cdharrison

September 2nd, 2005 at 4:40 pm
3

Maybe I’m in the minority, but I’d rather pay a little bit more for a song I really want, versus paying full price for a CD with mostly sh*tty songs on it that I don’t care for. I don’t like that the prices are going to possibly increase, but 50 cents more isn’t too bad an increase for new music.
Lukas

September 2nd, 2005 at 11:50 pm
4

I feel that 99c is perfect if they rase the price their word of mouth advertisers witch are nerds like myself would go back to stealing. They should drop the price for a few months to 59c and advertise their asses off this would convince thousands of people to try it, get hooked and keep paying evan after they rase the price back to 99c. The other thing is a recommendation program (get a friend to join and we give you an album). Would you recommend anyone?
Paul Livingstone

September 3rd, 2005 at 3:20 pm
5

This is just more greed from the record industry. Still I don’t buy any ‘hot new singles’ as it’s all shit anyway. So it’ll probably work out better for me that I’ll be able to pick up old tunes (which are infinitely better) for 50p or less.
Lisa McMillan

September 3rd, 2005 at 8:59 pm
6

Greedy bastards. itunes actually got me to buy music again. I haven’t bought a cd in years, yet I purchase at least 1 full album on itunes every Tuesday. They’ve made a fortune on me and I haven’t downloaded a pirated song since iTunes Canada opened. I wish they’d just leave a good thing alone.