“‘EMI Group boss Alain Levy said at press conference today that he believed Jobs would introduce multiple price points for iTunes music within the next year,’ Forbes recently reported. The story they’re trying to tell you is that ‘older, less popular songs could be discounted, and in-demand singles could go for more than a dollar.’ Let’s think this through, because I think the recording industry is lying about why they want different prices,” Joel Spolsky writes for Joel on Software.
“The reason the music recording industry wants different prices has nothing to do with making a premium on the best songs. What they really want is a system they can manipulate to send signals about what songs are worth, and thus what songs you should buy. I assure you that when really bad songs come out, as long as they’re new and the recording industry wants to promote those songs, they’ll charge the full $2.49 or whatever it is to send a fake signal that the songs are better than they really are. It’s the same reason we’ve had to put up with crappy radio for the last few decades: the music industry promotes what they want to promote, whether it’s good or bad, and the main reason they want to promote something is because that’s a bargaining chip they can use in their negotiations with artists,” Spolsky writes.
“Here’s the dream world for the EMI Group, Sony/BMG, etc.: there are two prices for songs on iTunes, say, $2.49 and $0.99. All the new releases come out at $2.49. Some classic rock (Sweet Home Alabama) is at $2.49. Unwanted, old, crap, like, say, Brandy (You’re A Fine Girl) — the crap we only know because it was pushed on us in the 70s by paid-off disk jockeys — would be deliberately priced at $0.99 to send a clear message that $0.99 = crap,” Spolsky writes. “And now when a musician gets uppity, all the recording industry has to do is threaten to release their next single straight into the $0.99 category, which will kill it dead no matter how good it is. And suddenly the music industry has a lot more leverage over their artists in negotiations: the kind of leverage they are used to having. Their favorite kind of leverage. The ‘we won’t promote your music if you don’t let us put rootkits on your CDs’ kind of leverage.”
Full article here.
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They want variable pricing to control their artists? Sorry, that presumption is way over the top … stupid, even. They want variable pricing for many reasons, including some related to control of their artists or even iTMS, but mostly to maximize the value of their titles – old and new.
Even so, I think Jobs hit the sweet spot with his pricing model, even if it is rather idealistic. Discounting older titles while putting a premium on newer ones (driving cosumers to p2p) could result in less revenue overall.
The problem is, RIAA bigwigs aren’t thinking clearly. Instead of concentrating on adding value to physical media (multi-discs and dvd), or embracing/studying online delivery solutions, they are sitting on their desks, sipping Pinot, twirling pencils, blowing smoke-rings towards the ceiling, and thinking very, very small thoughts.
I agree: Brandy is a killer track.
You know, I don’t even know what the dudes from Looking Glass look like…
Just Googled em…
Anyway, I still agree that Brandy was a fine track (a fine track), what a good track it would be (such a fine track)…
Ha – what a freakin hoot… I love 70s pop…
here is my playlist…
• Landslide – Fleetwood MAc
• 10cc – I’m Not In Love
• Coven – One Tin Soldier
• 5 Stairsteps – Ooh Child… Over The Edge Song…
• Sweet – Fox on the Run
• Brandy – Looking Glass
• Summer Breeze – Seals & Crofts
• Byrds – Eight Miles High
• Ian Matthews – Shake It
• Ventura Highway – America
• Firefall – Strange Way
• Dont Fear the Reaper – BoC
• Oh What a Night – Frankie Valli
• Talk Talk – It’s My Life**
• Peter Gabriel – Solsbury Hill
• Jefferson Starship – Miracles
• Simon & Garfunkel – Scarborough Fair
• Tin Man – America
• Simon and Garfunkel – Hazy Shade of Winter
• Gordan Lightfoot – The Wreck of Edmund Fitzgerald
• Knights in white satin – moody blues
• Crosby Still – Wasted on the Way
• America – A Horse with no Name
Brandy is right in there…
A message to the powers that be:
99¢ is what got me to buy music again – PERIOD. Break that dollar barrier – boom, I’m gone.
Luckily, one mans trash is anothers treasure.
If only iTunes soold Shannon by Henry Gross WITHOUT Will Ferrell crying over the track.
eat that.
The Music Co.s are trying to bullshit us with the “older songs would be discounted” crap. You can be sure that it will end up cost the consumer more if they get their way. Else why would they do it?
I think it would be smarter if they LOWERED the prices across the board so more and more people would start using it (and more pirating people become legit). Say 50 cents or even 25 cents per song. With the costs they save in distribution I think there is a very good chance that in the long run this could end up making them much more cash. Certainly more than if they continue to pursue DRM schemes that are too restrictive and so are hacked and ultimately are meaningless.
THAT is how the Music Co.s should be fighting pirating. With convenience and lack of viruses at a painless price point.
It’s not just greed, it’s more about power and control.
MW= trial
as in, that’s where these guys should be held accountable.
The recording industry is so clueless.
And I pretty much mean everybody, including the artists. Oh hell, particularly the artists. If any artist had a clue they would never sign a contract that, for all intents and purposes, makes them an indentured servant.
Then there’s the business end of the recording industry. The phrase, “Cutting off your nose to spite your face” comes to mind whenever I hear a new piece of dreck (like two-tiered pricing) that they come up. Clueless just doesn’t begin to descibe how short-sighted these clown-farts are.
Conspiracy theory has its merits. This one at lease, is entertaining.
Oops! That should have been, “This one, at least, is entertaining.
Well if they are going to charge $2.49 for a song I guess im gonna start downloading illegally then.
I will not pay that amount for a 3 minute song.
They do this and you can say goodbye to the legal music download market!
What they should be doing is have 99c as the price for chart or most demand music and have 59c for everything else.
REDUCE the price – NOT increase it!!
GREEDY BASTARDS.
Hey Petey..
Pay more for the files which we know are the most accessible on file sharing networks?