iTunes Store now infected with variable pricing, Amazon still $0.99
By Thomas Ricker 
posted April 7th 2009 4:34AM
posted April 7th 2009 4:34AM
in April, based on what the music labels charge Apple, songs on iTunes will be available at one of three price points-69 cents, 99 cents and $1.29-with many more songs priced at 69 cents than $1.29.Regardless, we know where we'll be purchasing our Miley Cyrus from now on.
[Thanks, Jesse]
Read -- January "Changes Coming to the iTunes Store" press release
Read -- iTunes top songs [Warning: iTunes App link]
Read -- Amazon top songs
Uk prices still ain't changed, thank god, but for how long?
Why would it be a problem if iTunes DID change the UK prices? You still have other options...you just seem very dismissive of them. Example, I'm about to get Motown 50. Amazon mp3 £7.49, iTunes £9.99 (with my email address embedded in each track...cheers Apple)
Your options are still better on CD Amazon = £7.98 / Play.com £7.99.
Exercise your options and don't let companies like Apple feel they have you over a barrel...we all lose when you do that.
Actually, they have (http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/5271/picture1zhw.png)
Prices are now 59p, 79p, 99p. Yet to see any 59p songs. Most seem to be 79p (the old price). There's a couple of 99p songs, too.
The UK Prices HAVE changed - most of the top 10 are now 29p at Amazon! Check out the comparison of the top 10:
http://froggypic.com/image/04/26e06a43dcdfa30c70a775a2937f00c6.png
Fuckin hell. Amazon hiked prizes too
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13526_3-10214556-27.html
Yup, Amazon now has the same tiered pricing. The fact that they didn't wait for at least a few days tells you that this is a recording industry move. Apple is the elephant in the room for on-line sales and once they capitulated, the rest had no choice. At least we don't have to worry about obsolete DRM any more (which only penalized legal downloaders) and perhaps this will give people second thoughts about mindlessly buying the top 10 tunes just because they're popular.
I have yet to see any $0.69 songs. Not that they aren't there, but I haven't found any. Funny enough though... some oldies but goodies I thought would be $0.69 are now $1.29... songs like Thriller, Superstition, Ain't No Mountain High Enough, etc. You'd think they'd at least stay at $0.99.
When will the labels work with and not against simple pricing and DRM-less files with Apple?
I was just thinking the same thing. I gave up trying to find $0.69 priced songs after 15 minutes.
I can beat that!!! I went to the Top Songs on the main page and noticed that the Crack a Bottle - Single by Eminem was $1.29, then I went to the Hip-Hop main page and in the Top Songs it is listed for 0.99 !?!?
Conspiracy? I think so...
Stupid? I know so...
all your songs are belong to us!
those songs probably still sell reasonably well though
yeah i was just gonna say...all the songs you mentioned as oldies but goodies are still good sellers too....thus the price increase...
they say most songs will be 69c b/c 90 percent of the songs on itunes dont sell compared to top 40 (which will soon be all 1.29).
*prays indie scene stays at 99c or drops to 69c*
If I paid for all of my music, I'd have wasted $1600 of my money.
I found one! Lol I remember seeing this post a while ago and I was just scannin the iTunes store to make sure I had my shit organized right and found one so I had to comment. People of the Sun--Rage Against the Machine. I'm kinda surprised, that's a good song too.
They are doing it wrong. If you have an "explicit" label, you can charge a dollar more if you want.
So, if anything variable pricings do is to make things mor expensive, I think I'll stick with nonvariable prices...
Apple never wanted variable pricing. The labels are trying everything to remove iTunes' dominance:
- They tried making every other store DRM-free. No good, people still went for the DRM-ed iTunes. Apparently, none of the "real people" cared, it was all technology people.
- Now they're trying to force iTunes to be more expensive for the most popular songs. People may not understand DRM, but they understand money. If it doesn't work, at least the labels are still making more.
"We know where we'll be purchasing our Miley Cyrus from now on."
Sorry Engadget, but from that picture, Miley Cyrus is still lovable at $0.99
That means they will buy Miley Cyrus from iTunes~
Even if it were 1.29, Engadget would still buy it from iTunes, because they're Apple-crazy
no the point here is that you can identify a Miley Cryus song just from the title..
So, what the music companies are doing is forcing the largest retailer of their products to charge more. These guys are geniuses! We should get them to sort out the economy with their top notch business savvy!
Miley Cyrus? Pah, its all about Lady GaGa, judging from the Top 10 list!
Btw, this price change won't affect me in the slightest anyway, since I've never even listened to almost all of those songs listed above.
piracy-la-la-la-la-la!!!!
The music industry don't like Apple having so much power & marketshare - so looks like they will force their prices higher to shift people to alternate stores, and thus lower Apples power
can I have some of your kool-aid?
@crescentdavid
You don't think that is true? That's been well known for the last few years and is why Amazon has been able to sell DRM-free tracks when Apple weren't, beyond EMI tracks. The recording industry is fed up with not having the power.
One wonders what would happen if Apple were to create their own record label and compete directly with the Big 4.
@Kelmon
Apple Corps would ream them a new one.
Good call Genius.
One wonders why Apple would want to be in such a shitty commoditized business model that shrinks every fucking year when they can sit back and make billions selling iPods and iPhones.
Holy shit, I'm a genius!
*sells Warner Music stock and buys Apple!
@insky
Good point - I forgot about that. I'd suggest this be settled in a fist-fight between Steve and Yoko but I suspect that Yoko would whupp Steve into a bloody pulp.
Apple Records is done. Apple bought them out for like a Billion dollars so they couldn't sue anymore! (Paul's divorce probably helped) Then licensed the "Apple Records" name back for Apple Records to use for like a dollar without the nasty strings from the past. It was a big deal last year when they changed their name from Apple Computer to Apple Corporation.
Steve can do whatever he wants now.
Actually Amazon UK have reduced some songs to 29p from 79p today!
Yep, I saw this aswell.
Makes you wonder if they are making money at 29p or if this is a lost leader so to speak.
Even though I am a blatent Apple fan boy (iMac / Mac Mini / Iphone / Airport Extreme / Airport Express / In Car ipod 30GB) this would make me switch. I would rather have music truely DRM / Device locking free/
Makes me wonder what their markups are on the other stuff they sell.
Full price for lossy music distributed digitally is crazy.
Now watch as the music labels force Amazon to change its 0.99 music pricing.
Although, i am willing to pay more for drm-free tracks versus drm ones.
Apple did the right thing. Down with DRM!
"Although, i am willing to pay more for drm-free tracks versus drm ones."
They're both DRM free. iTunes no longer has DRM on it's AAC tracks, mp3 can't actually have DRM protection.
I don't really see your point.
They removed alot of content from the iTunes store in making everything DRM-free, though. You can no longer download TMBG's The Spine anymore, for example.
There is still DRMd content on Itunes. The majority of the new stuff is good to go, but some of the foreign tracks and obscure Jazz Joints are DRMd. I think there may be a bit of overzealous (read false) advertising on the part of Apple in this regard. The thing that ticks me off about Apple is how they've been so nice to charge me $600 to convert my existing DRM tracks to DRM free. Needless to say, my Itunes purchases have dropped significantly. I will however agree with some of the other posters, that this may be due to the Record goons trying to get back at Apple, when they really should be thanking them, as e-music, amazon and a host of others have followed Apple's formula, which basically gives consumers a compelling reason not to pirate. I would venture to say the music Industry would be alot worse off if it wasn't for Apple.
I'm never buying any songs ever again, to much of a burden to protect multi thousand dollar libraries, I using my 120 GB zune and it just is a better music experience then anything else. Fuck massive libraries, if I can find the music I want I'm happy, and I ALWAYS find the music IU want on the zune store.
I love my Zune too, but dial it back a notch. You sound like a shill.
Any music environment will require that you back up the music. Subscription is great to explore new music, but some stuff you want to keep permanently.
Too much of a burden to protect? I have a copy on my computer and a copy on my iPod. If anything happens to one or the other I can restore from the remaining. How hard is that?
Have fun renting music.
+1 for rented music!
but...... it's nye impossible to restore music from an iPod if you have to reinstall iTunes / your OS because Apple is such a bastard and gives you only the option of formatting or not recovering your music - Another stupid move by Apple
@tcc3
you do get to keep some stuff permanently because when u have a Zune subscription you get to purchase 10 songs at no charge monthly,DRM-free 320kbps MP3. also every now and then they have a couple of newly released popular albums for like $.99 cents only and still that DRM-free criteria from above. best deals in town i think.
na, shills aren't as stupid as me, It's just that I have had an ipod 120 classic, ipod touch 2nd gen 8gb, ipod nano 2nd gen 2gb, and none of them have matched up to the experience for music, and even the some types of video look way better on the zune then even my beloved ipod touch, but if your a big internet fan get the ipod touch hands down, it's easily the best of any mobile internet browser out their, and I have played with windows mobile phones (even 6.5, it's cool but I'd wait for mobile 7), blackberrys, their nice, the bold is the best, palms, out dated, symbian (N95) cool, but it could do more, wel you get my point, and none of them get anywhere near as good, maybe the htc touch hd in some ways, but thats $800
Miley Cyrus? now that is shameless.
Variable pricing to pay for variable bit rate?
Gah, this is the worst timing for Microsoft to move their Zune servers. I was going to post a picture of how the top ten songs on the Zune marketplace are still the same price at 320Kbps DRM free MP3's
http://i39.tinypic.com/2lvyfj6.jpg
i support what you're trying to do here - but go ahead and include prices in that screen-shot of yours - makes it easier to make a point about pricing....