“iTunes has been hailed as the first successful online music store, with over 50 million songs downloaded. Its success has been due largely to Apple’s powerful name, the iPod, flexible use of the tracks, and the 99 cent-price per song or $9.99 for an album. More than that, it has been celebrated as a sign of things to come for an industry still in its infancy,” Matt Buchanan writes for The Washington Square News.
“Despite iTunes’ success and the growing success of other services, the record industry still isn’t happy; it thinks that 99 cents a song is too cheap, and the five major labels (Universal Music Group, EMI, BMG, Sony and Warner Music) are discussing a price hike ranging from $1.25 to an eye-gouging $2.49 per song,” Buchanan writes. “At that price, downloading music will become far more expensive than buying CDs, which would practically destroy the online music market.”
Buchanan writes, “This is counter to everything the record companies should be doing. If anything, they should be cutting prices to make it more attractive to download music legally. Instead, this move will push online music junkies back into the world of file sharing. After all, who wants to pay more for less?”
Full article here.
I have been following this one for about two weeks now. It is just sad how greedy those record companies are.
Is it me, or is it coincidental that this is happening around the same time Sony is preparing to launch their “iPod/iTMS Killer”? Makes me go, “Hmmmm?”
This might propel a lot of groups and individual singers to start disassociating themselves from the big 5 (they don’t deserve any capital letters). There is no way in Hades that I will buy anything online for even $1.25. This sounds like the big 5 could also get into legal trouble; no one has bothered yet because .99 isn’t TOO bad, but setting the price collectively at 2.49 sounds like the feds might get involved. I wonder what Bush and Kerry would have to say about this!?
How many times must it be said that the RIAA (and its members): JUST DON’T GET IT.
$2.49 a song. That’ll give new life to illegal file sharing.
what a bunch of idiots! i hope steve stomps on their heads with some sense. i was a former limewire user until itunes/pepsi, now i’m thinking of returning to file sharing cause that’s just way to much.
maybe ppl should complain about the “big 5” like ppl complain about gas prices from OPEC!!!
I also hear that (although i’m not sure how new or old this is) the RIAA is working to have a tax on cd-rs or something. Completely unreasonable, eh? I mean, most of us probably don’t even use cd-rs for music..
I have gone completely legit as far as obtaining music is concerned. But should there be a price hike, I will tell the RIAA to fuck off and resume my old file sharing ways.
Don’t be stupid boys. I want to give you my money. Don’t force me to do otherwise.
Who do we write/complain to this possibility? Best to make our voices heard now as to when its too late.
this is about killing the purchase of music and wanting us to rent it. recurring revenue folks, is what they want. they are on the verge of losing control of the production and distribution of music, their only function really and when that ends, then they lose their income.
Its all about GREED & the growth of profits. Never ending cycle. OMG I could go on & on & on…….
screw them. they can burn in hell
At $2.49 a song, I’d have bought only 1/3rd of the iTunes songs that I did.
And England is still waiting for iTMS – they’ll probably charge us Brits �2.49 ($4.42).
Damn those greedy fat cats.
Last year it was the poor struggling RIAA companies, about to turn out the lights due to illegal downloading. This year the greedy b*stards want to kill the goose that laid the Golden Egg. Apple should offer artists that control their intellectual property a deal bypassing the RIAA members. The old business model is dead and they are desperately trying to hold on to their Lear Jets.
at $2.49 a song, I would have bought 0 of any
A BIG FAT ZERO
I hope they are listening, damn shame, the iTunes music store is a hit, that is where I will buy my music…ever again
‘NoPCzone’: I’m with you 100%. That’s the right move!!
A prophetic message.
I won’t even buy a song at for a dollar. What they need to do is lower the price to 50 cents.
The music industry is terrified because they see an end to their exploitation of artists on the horizon. What you have here is a bunch of people who had neither the drive nor the talent to make it in music themselves parasitically attaching themselves to artists.
I think most of us can live with 99 cents a song, but I myself will not pay any more just so these loser executives can play rock star and do their coke off of $1000/hr call girl’s boobs.
$0.99 * (n > 0) = profit
$2.50 * 0 = $0.00
’nuff said
this seems like the RIAA want to send people back to file sharing, so that they can be in the business of law suits.
$2.50? I’m with rageous.
The labels can kiss my hairy butt and I’ll go back to file sharing.
99 cents a song is a fair deal IMHO. If the price had started at $1.25, a lot of us would have been willing to buy from iTMS simply to support Apple, but the business wouldn’t have taken off as it did. To try to jack the price after a year is a joke. Anything over $1.25 will kill iTMS, perhaps even Steve would kill iTMS over that price hike and allow the iPod to play other stores’ formats. Just a possibility, not a proposal or a prophesy.
Well if they do that the party is over, we tried to play fair and compensate the artists by buying their songs at the agreed price of 99� a song.
But if the RIAA/labels are getting full of themselves, there’s always that Russian site that you can download for a mere 1� a MB is ANY format or bit-rate you choose and we can Paypal the artists the difference.
The RIAA has been having fun clogging the P2P networks with viruses and 10 second samples of the whole songs, raiding college campuses based upon what the Napster software has been telling them, suing kids and old ladies, but they are fighting a losing battle. Former jackbooted ATF is now the head of the RIAA, but they are turning off more and more people.
Artists need to publish/sell their own music on the internet. Like the Grateful Dead already does.
I’m all for compensating artists, but a deal is a deal.
F*cking over Apple is going to piss off millions of Mac owners and a lot of PC users who come to like iTunes.
Goes to show where the labels brains are, in their ass.
I will definitely start downloading music illegally if the price raises ANYTHING above 99 cents. I have the FAIRPLAY source code and will happily make sure it gets distributed to everyone I know.
On a related note, I am disappointed in Steve Jobs. Refusing to open up the iTunes DRM to other stores. If this were Microsoft doing this, we would ALL be screaming. Steve Jobs, in addition to making NOISY computers that run HOT, doesn’t care. This guy is too stuck on himself to see it.
And I own two Macs. I really like the Macs. But I’m very disappointed.
I fear that Apple will now begin to crumble. I was thinking about getting a Mac notebook (the new ones look pretty nice), but now I will think twice.
Steve Jobs — WAKE UP MAN. Or you will take Apple with you to your grave.
Apparently letting other people sell air for the RIAA and collecting checks just isn’t good enough for them. I say fuck the “musicians” who work for (are enslaved by) any of the big 5 as well as the big 5. Led Zeppelin Rules! Fuck the whole shitty music BIZ. Frankly, they can raise their prices and sue fans, since it doesn’t matter to me. All the shit that comes out now is so much crap anyway. I already bought anything worth buying.
Do you mean PlayFair? If so that’s not going to help at all, if anything it will make the record companies less likely to support iTMS