“EMI Group PLC Chairman Eric Nicoli Tuesday rebuffed Apple Computer Inc.’s assertion that a single price for songs sold over the Internet helps prevent piracy in the music industry,” MarketWatch reports. ‘I’m not persuaded by the argument that a single price deters piracy,’ Nicoli said at a news conference. ‘I’m not persuaded of the fact that a lower price deters piracy. What I am persuaded of is that making music more convenient and better value is a deterrent to piracy.’ Nicoli was responding to comments from Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs who last month called music companies greedy for seeking higher prices for downloads and who argued that this would encourage piracy.”
Full article here.
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Try raising the price and let’s see how well that deters piracy.
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“What I am persuaded of is that making music more convenient and better value is a deterrent to piracy.”
Huh! Isn’t that what the ITMS does?
MacDailyNews Take: Try raising the price and let’s see how well that deters piracy.
Exactly.
‘What I am persuaded of is that making music more convenient and better value is a deterrent to piracy.’ So this means…..? On the one hand, you slap Apple, on the other, you say it’s good? More convenient and a better value? I don’t get it?
Are you suggesting subscriptions????
To a degree he is right. Single pricing vs. multi-pricing doens’t deter piracy. If iTMS had tracks ranging from 99 cents down to say 69 cents piracy would not increase. Multiple pricing from 99cents up to whatever they want for current/popular tracks would either encourage piracy or in my case just deter me from purchasing. I’m used to a buck now, it will be hard to pay more.
yeah, and neither does overcharging for crap – nuff said
Anti-piracy laws and copy protection from the Man is like those disclaimers that say “Don’t try this at home”- Youre more inclined to do it…..
MW: school
as in “wo0o! no school today!!”
Its scary to think these music label CEO’s really have NO CLUE as to what to do. All the better for the RDF to work next year when they renegotiate with Steven Paul.
I would like to see the results of a study which would show just how much actual money the average music “artist” (these days) receive from the sales of CDs … as opposed to the money they receive from live performances and the sales of T-Shirts, buttons, et al..
I bet todays artists are being gouged more by the record companies than they are by the iTMS…
Wasn’t it the Greatful Dead who encouraged the “pirating” of their music ?? …. I doubt their record sales suffered much
MDN MW “data” … (Wasnt he on Star Trek ?)
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Convenience and value deters pricing. Right on. Thing is, that given the convenience of iTMS, I find $0.99 to be the right value. Lower prices would really be a greater value, but higher prices? I don’t think I would be willing to pay $1.19 or $1.49 for a single. That’s too much. I would rather p2p it. Now for a video, lyrics, etc, perhaps…but then my value is increasing commiserate with the price now isn’t it?
Plus, what Dumb-A doesn’t remember is that this is a new medium (still) and there should be some price consideration for the fact that if Apple stops making iPods, I can’t lossessly transfer my collection to another pocket media player.
MDN word: attack
>EMI chairman says Apple’s iTunes Music Store’s single 99-cent song price doesn’t deter piracy>
Yes it does—Big flash of lightning. BOOOM!!
WalMart & Costco has done a great job in dropping prices, yet crime still exists.
Nothing is cheaper than stealing.
Mr. Nicoli, please understand that there is a difference between “deter” and “prevent”. A padlock on my door might not prevent theft, but it probably does deter it. Or, as my father used to say, locks keep out the honest folks.
That is one ridiculous stamement obviously made by someone who NEVER pays for music and probably doesn’t even care about music very much.
iTunes has made music more convenient and digital music sales have tripled according to latest reports. It’s been said before, can’t be said enough, if they want variable pricing then have .99 as the ceiling and go down from there.
Greed. Pure greed.
Yes! Liz Phair returns to her roots. I just bought the album, thanks to the iPodDN ad above and it is great.
I love iTunes
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Funny,
Would you believe I read this article mere moments after downloading three songs. I was planning on using a P2P but instead thought it’s be easier and quicker to use iTunes and paid the $2.97.
These record companies need to realize something before the Internet starts to kill them slowly again.
“Sometimes it’s difficult to see the real world below when you sit up so high in an ivory tower.”
“….I’m not persuaded of the fact that a lower price deters piracy. What I am persuaded of is that making music more convenient and better value is a deterrent to piracy….”
which, IMHO, flies in the face of gobs of historic evidence from any economic sector that has spawned a black market….
*cigarettes
*booze
*currency, etc
consumer piracy and wide-spread contefeiting is a black market developed market response to preceived low value/high prices in a tightly controlled market coupled with a technological change the industry didn’t respond to…
the question for this guy is what “value add” could the industry possible give to the product that could justify higher prices and overcome the convenience of itunes or piracy and the lower prices?
none that I can think of……
More convenient and better value?
How does one make it MORE convenient that iTMS?
How does one make music a BETTER value by RAISING prices?
I guess the context of the statements must be from the perspective of the music industry, NOT the consumer?
<<EMI chairman says Apple’s iTunes Music Store’s single 99-cent song price doesn’t deter piracy>>
Maybe not, but isn’t 99 cents better than zero Eric? And by overpricing CDs for all of these years, you guys did a better job of detering piracy than iTunes is doing? Geez, what a Dil…
The whole point of the single price for a single song is that it makes pruchases transparent – you always know what you are paying. Albums are different because you get different numbers of songs etc, but whilst the online music market is still growing single pricing makes sense.
” ‘I’m not persuaded by the argument that a single price deters piracy,’ Nicoli said at a news conference.
Of course not if it’s $5 a song, but it’s 99¢, a important physcological number
“‘I’m not persuaded of the fact that a lower price deters piracy.
Not all of it, but the more you raise the price the more will decide upon other alternatives, and once they find something else, they aren’t coming back.
” What I am persuaded of is that making music more convenient and better value is a deterrent to piracy.”
Those two iTunes provides, you raise the price and the value disappears. If you lower the prices on songs that are not so popular, people may be more inclined to pay for them.
You raise prices on songs people want, they will go elsewhere and may never come back to iTMS. You don’t see a red cent.
‘What I am persuaded of is that making music more convenient and better value is a deterrent to piracy.’
m/w: idiot
Nicoli says, “Making music… a better value will deter piracy.”
First off, the product of music is extremely vulnerable to varied tastes and opinions… i.e. what one person considers “a value” as far as a song goes is actually worthless to some other individual. Some people like Britney Spears, others would rather gouge out their ears. Britney Spears, in terms of quality, does not have a universal value in the same way, say, a hammer or a TV would have. Better hammers are stronger and last longer; they have a tangible value. Some TVs have more features or better picture quality; they have a tangible value. No song in the world has this sort of tangible value.
Thus, in the general sense for music as a commodity, “value” must come down to one variable: price. To increase value with price as the only variable, you have to lower the price.
Eric Nicoli’s statements are inherently a contradiction. Lowering price doesn’t deter piracy, except for the times that prices are lowered.
Music label double-speak. We should all be used to it by now.
What most people fail to understand is that the iTMS model echoes the success of P2P – the same pricing structure is akin to a free price structure. So mentally it registers the same way, and you simply use the iTMS for all of your buying needs. Now, if they price songs all over the place, what will happen is people will use P2P for the higher priced songs, and while they are at it, will probably steal as much as they can. It would be a step backwards, to be sure.
Most people, however, lack the ability to see this.
At last, someone who doesn’t say “a” better value.
The more the CEO’s of these companies open their mouths on this subject the more the artists must wonder that these people have been in control of their music…
Many would be willing to pay more for a higher quality download.
How about 99¢ for the current 128/AAC and $1.29 for 224/AAC and $1.49 for the Apple Lossless Codec? Many Classical/Jazz fans would jump at the chance to buy higher quality stuff. A digital download to replace a CD has to be lossless.