RSSiTunes Tracks May Increase in Price
By Ed Oswald | Published November 16, 2005, 12:51 PM
For several months now, the record industry has become more and more vocal over the issue of pricing on the iTunes Music Store. On Wednesday, the first indications of a possible variable pricing structure coming to iTunes became apparent.
The Wall Street Journal reported that EMI Music CEO Alain Levy told attendees of a London press conference that he had held talks with Apple CEO Steve Jobs over the issue.
"There is a common understanding that we will have to come to a variable pricing structure. The issue is when," the paper quoted Levy as saying to reporters. "There is a case for superstars to have a higher price."
Right now, iTunes charges 99 cents for all songs in its catalog. However, the record industry would like to charge more for bigger artists while dropping the price on smaller acts.
But most critics view the demand as an affront to raise prices across the board, while only lowering the price on acts that very few listeners will purchase.
Some smaller labels have gone even further in voicing their disapproval, saying such a move could kill the digital music business altogether and wipe out indie labels that are already struggling in a tough industry.
"My main concern is that if we increase prices now, it obviously isn't going to increase the number of downloads and, in fact, might stall the whole market," David Falman, Managing Director of Odessa Mama Records recently wrote in an guest column featured on BetaNews.
According to EMI's Levy, such a change would likely take place in the next 12 months. Apple's contracts with many of the record labels expire in 2006 and are currently up for negotiation.
Apple has so far not commented on the reports.
Apple should have seen this coming. Building revenue off of somone elses comodity. bad buisness and unles the said group has no way to build a buisness for it's own commodity....like music bands.
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|I'd bet they won't let them renew their contracts with EMI if they don't comply with the price raise. This is utter stupidity, leave iTunes as it is. I buy a lot of music from iTunes and love the prices. The price change is going to alieniate some people. The record industry has shown time and time again in the past months that its trying to squeeze every cent out of everyone it can. I feel they are destroying P2P, which could go on the basis of a free internet. What about the so-called "smaller acts", that rely on low prices on places like iTunes? Oh wait, its survival of the fittest right? Leave the weak behind and let them die? Yeah, you tell that little garage band you're sorry they can't follow their dream b/c they aren't popular enough to charge the same price as "bigger acts"
Isn't music really about reaching people? Isn't music about bringing people together? Isn't it about that one band that you just can't get enough of? Or that one song that brings tears to your eyes everytime you hear it? Or something you just wanna rock out to in your car? Yeah, go ahead EMI, you tell those little bands that have a shot at making it they have to go home and try something else now.
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|This just sucks. Jobs should hold firm and say 99 cents or nothing.
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|Hmmmmm....crap costs more? Not really a new concept, is it?
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|I think the point that is missed with internet stores is that I can get the stuff for free. They should make me WANT to pay the money. Think about the ISP's that were free, or web hosting that's free. I pay for my web hosting. Why? I don't want ads, and I want reliability. It's no different with music. I will pay for reliability and quality, not crippled files.
Why can't there be a product for $15/mo that lets you download 50 songs that you own? I've said it before, and I'll say it again. I'll pay WELL to get good, quality rips that don't have DRM and rootkits. It's retail, people -- make me want to come to your store, please! You don't buy clothes that still have the beeping tag *after* you buy it, do you? No! When you pay money, they take it off!
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|Agreed 100%
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|As it is net music is overpriced, this will only give people less incentive to download legally.
Who wants crippled DRM WMA's for more money than the CD costs to buy in a shop, that can be ripped DRM free?
This is nothing more than fat cat record company greed, and will surely backfire..
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|"This is nothing more than fat cat record company greed, and will surely backfire.."
Let's hope so.
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|No... seriously... I can find (and get!) all my favorite songs/cds/dvds on the internet. I can download them for FREE! I can´t believe all the stupid people who actually pay for that...
Give me no crap! $30/$40 for a CD/DVD when the artist get only 5%/10%? FU***CK OFF! I´d rather get them for free!
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|And give the artist 0%? =/
Sure they deserve more than they get, but they definitely deserve SOMETHING over NOTHING...
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|Alex is a perfect example of what advocates of file sharing DO NOT WANT ON THEIR SIDE. You make an a** out of yourself and in the eyes of the industry, an a** out of all of us. Do yourself a favor Alex, from now on, dont have a voice...you are not helping.
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|Alex has a point. I'd much rather download the music for free of the net, and if i ever see the artists on the street...hell i'll GIVE them the money. I'd rather have the artists make the money than the fat cat record labels and the RIAA.
Think about it, the artist makes the music, does all the work, has the tallent. The recording studios put up money for the studio, marketing, editing, and labeling. The RIAA does...um...does...uh...takes the money, and...um...uh...um...yeah thats it. THE RIAA ARE A BUNCH OF FAT PIGS! I would be much happier if it was a 50/50 split between the artist and the record company.
One thing i find ironic...the people making the music don't even own their music. Even their music is controlled by the music companies!
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|And I'm sure you see so many of the artists you listen to as yuu're walking down the street...
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|I've never understood the fascination with iTunes. Sure, I want a format that can only be played on one manufacturer's devices rather than one that can be played on several different mfrs. devices. Add to that the fact that places like Wal Mart and Buy.com are selling songs online for as little as $0.79, a 20% discount from iTunes, and I ask...why bother, other than for songs you can only get from iTunes?
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|Because if you happen to *like* the certain player from that certain manufacturer...
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|Well, if folks like it that much, then why cry about iTunes toying with raising prices? It must be worth it after all...
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|I haven never been a fan of itunes. its a great idea and have done great just never liked them. anyways, they should keep the song at $.99 a song , and for less popular artist make it aroung like $.75 and lower depending how popular they are. For me i would like that a lot more, concidering im not a fan of popular music much. Thats just me though.
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|Cool! Another reason to stay away from iTunes.
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|i say, let them raise the price all they want, hell let them raise it to 15 bucks a song for all i care, i still wouldn't pay a penny for anything with DRM in it.
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|For most people, 99c is a PREMIUM. I would start considering the purchase alternative at 49c without DRM. 99c with DRM is a lot. Buying CD's is dangerous. DRM is hazardous to your PC's health.
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|And they wonder why people download pirated music....
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|Lack of personal responsibility. Unfounded sense of entitlement. General lack of logical/critical thinking ability. Greed. Stupidity.
Need I go on?
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|you are a tool just like your name says. not everybody is as fortunate as you pretend to be.
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|LMAO. With a name like PC_Tool, someone was bound to say this someday.
ALAS, I agree with the 'tool'. With all the alternatives available this year, you'd have to be a pre-meditative natural born thief to defend downloading music from P2P and Websites nowadays. There are SO many options....
For me? Virgin Music, $8.00 gets me unlimited tunes per month. I have the freedom to use the player on 3 PCs and I can move the music to my Mp3 device. I can buy a song for 99c, or an album for $9.00 and not have to worry about losing my music because with this service I can get anything I lost back for free.
For the DRM unfriendly there's Emusic where you can get DRM free songs and AllofMP3 (not legal by my standards but lets not get technical) where it's 2c per megabyte.
So how can you say ANYTHING you have to say to justify stealing music other than "it's too expensive". That's what all cowardly thieves say. If it;s too expensive then do without it. If a car is too expensive, you don't go steal one, do you?
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|Fortunate has absolutely NOTHING to do with it.
NOTHING.
If it is NOT YOURS, you cannot TAKE it. You ARE NOT ENTITLED TO IT just because you can't afford it. This is NOT a socialist society.
WAKE UP.
Thanks for that witty criticism of my nick...like I've never heard that one before...
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|Typical response to that would be they didn't deprive anyone of the music, like they would be doing if they stole a car.
It's a disconnect in their logic circuts, and as yet I've foung no way of remedying it.
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|If they raise the price to say $1.05 or $1.10 per song I'd say that would be OK.
If it goes higher than that, I will stop using iTunes, RIP all my stuff back to MP3 that's unprotected, and never look back.
Don't you just love greed?
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|Check out JHYMN
http://hymn-project.org
You can convert iTunes files to MP3. Works like a champ.
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|Yeah, Greed. Baseball and Hockey fans should know about this topic. Greedy bas****s!
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|JHymn also strips the DRM from iTunes AAC files.
Works like a champ.
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|I wish I could get it to work. It errored out on all of my files.
I'm on iTunes 6.0.1
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|as stated on their forums, you cannot use JHymn if you have upgraded past iTunes 5. they are currently working on one that works with iTunes 6 and above.
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|You could try Messer. http://www.dago.pmp.com.pl/messer/
or dbpowerAMP. See this thread
http://forum.dbpoweramp.com/showthread.php?t=5362
Both use the aux. of the sound card. Takes longer, but it works.
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|Not all labels are evil...labels are the reason why some artists become popular and others do not...a label promotes the hell out of certain artists gets them airtime, puts their name on every magazine, lets them be known...(sony screwed up big time and honestly I think people will not buy from them again because of their response)...but the fact remains without labels most artists would fade into obscurity...take for example indie labels...such as metropolis...(not sure how many people are familiar with them but they specialize in industrial, ebm, electro...) The label is run in the back of a record shop and is not glamorous looking but they are a label and without them many of the bands if not all of them would never have been known
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