Steve Jobs fighting for $9.99 iTunes movie downloads?
By Paul Miller 
posted June 19th 2006 3:57PM
posted June 19th 2006 3:57PM
He could be just trying for smoother ad copy for all we know, but Stevie J has been quite the staunch defender of the flat 99 cents per song, $9.99 an album, and $1.99 a TV episode price points we've come to associate with the iTunes experience. Now, according to Forbes, Steve Jobs is supposedly bumping heads with movie studio execs, trying to set a flat $9.99 price for digital movie downloads -- a feature that Apple purportedly will launch by the end of the year. The offer, which pays studios a 70 percent wholesale rate -- the same offered for TV shows -- has been "flatly rejected" by studio execs, who want the ability to price their popular movies higher than other titles. "Insiders" are saying that Apple is showing some signs of weakness, and might succumb to a $9.99-$19.99 range, but we can't think consumers would quite jump at that "deal" with QVGA versions of pics that were once purposed for the big screen. That is supposing that Apple will stick with QVGA, but it still seems a little silly to pit even a VGA $20 download against a $25-$30 HD DVD or Blu-ray disc. Call us old fashioned.
Jeez - the time it takes to download a 40 min show is terrible. There are a lot of ppl who only have the 768k DSL cause its cheap. Now thats ok for a MP3 but its quicker to drive to the store and buy the DVD movie! These non-tech ppl will soon realize its not worth it after they download their first 90 min movie lol
Just wanted to point out that there is no law against circumventing CSS or any other copy protection in Canada. There was an attempt to pass a DMCA-like law last year but it didn't go through before Parliament was dissolved. No further attempts to revive it have been made.
I really don't understand the whole iPod media ownership only route. While I like to own my music, why in hell would I want to pay a premium to own forever 15 episodes of The Daily Show? I'd much rather pay less for a subscription service to the program. On the iTunes pricing model one pays many times the price of basic cable to get a single season's worth of a single basic cable program.
In regard to movies, I'd rather rent them on the ipod format for a buck (maybe 2) or get them through a subscription service that works well than pay 10 dollars for a movie I can watch again and again. Perhaps I'm in the minority, but it seems to me that except for a few exceptional flicks very few movies are worth multiple viewings.
With HD-DVD doesn't Vista allow you to rip it and copy to a portable device?
I wouldn't pay $20 for a 320x200 resolution DRM file when I can pay $20 for a HD DVD next year and RIP with Vista (which DRMS it) and put it on a Microsoft DRM (janus?) compatible device.
Good. Let those stupid greedy movie execs dig their own grave. Morons.
Rental. Genius! The time-sensitive DRM idea scares me, but I think that renting movies on iTunes would probably be more appealing to Hollywould than selling for a price they cant control.
Sorry kerunt, Allofmp3.com is considered illegal by the IFPI(International Federation of the Phonographic Industry). http://www.ifpi.org/site-content/press/20060601.html