Apple's iTunes Pricing Under Fire



Henry Gomez, Plain Dealer's tech reporter, wrote in his blog (TechLink) how Apple's iTunes pricing is coming under fire by some of the major music distributors, and had asked for a response from me! They are saying they are disappointed with the returns on the $0.99 per song model, and also accusing Apple of being more concerned with the sale of iPods over the sale of music. I guess they want to have a more complex pricing structure, charging more for the hot new single, and less for the oldies.

You can read the article here: Apple Faces Pivotal Fight on Digital Music Prices

I say "whatever." I still think $0.99 per song is TOO much anyway. I know that I end up spending much more money on the those cheap Russian sites selling MP3's at $0.10 each than I ever would with iTunes (and that's not even counting what I spend on physical product). Check out my Russians Rock post.

What I don't understand is that this internet distribution model is sooo much cheaper than the physical model of transferring tons of product. Once the system is built, other than some maintenance, you can distribute all the music you want for extremely cheap. Why then can this cost savings be shown in price of the song? I think the record labels are just greedy mother f*ckers and want to make as much money as humanly possible. Screw the actual music, the artist, and the customer.

Damn I'm cynical this morning.

Posted: Wed - August 31, 2005 at 10:08 AM           |

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