Nice to see Mr Jobs hasn’t lost his touch. I’m happy to report that the SOBs who run the major record companies got their sorry asses kicked by Steve and agreed to continue their incredibly lucrative deals with the iTunes Music Store. It’s absolutely disgusting the way these pricks complain about what is probably the most profitable part of their business. (But between the record companies and the movies studios, it’s always been hard to decide which is the most obscenely greedy.*)
The records companies argued that they should be able to charge more for the ‘hottest’ songs, with the old crap remaining at 99¢. While I’m not opposed to variable pricing, I’ve always felt that 99¢ is the upper limit. I think the older, less popular stuff should sell for less; sometimes considerably less. But that’s just me.
*See Hollywood Accounting.
I’ll point out that in many cases the older ‘crap’ does sell for less than 99 cents a song if you buy the album. I’m an oldies fan. No, I mean really old oldies. Bing Crosby, Andrews Sisters, Frank Sinatra, like that. I also like a lot of eclectic stuff. Bagpipes, bluegrass, surf guitar. Many of these albums have as many as twenty songs but still sell for only $9.99. Which makes me pretty happy.
Having said that, I agree with you here, the record industry and the movie industry compete in defining and redefining greed.
Aloha
Between the post and what Smittie pointed out I couldn’t agree more. The greed is intolerable and 99¢ is definitely the upper limit if not too high anyway.
I wouldn’t mind paying $2 per song if the songs were higher bit-rate.
Not because I am going to sell the stuff; just in case I want to burn it as CD, I rather have higher quality source.
I would totally NOT buy for $2. But, I do see a bit more for lyrics, insert notes, etc. I guess my ears are defective– the current bit rate is more than adequate.
$ .99 is the current benchmark. Things will go up. There is a reason the labels agreed so quickly– mark my words: more content (lyrics, etc), more cost.
Yeah, at $2 a track, I’ll click over to Amazon and buy the CD. At the end of the day, what we get from iTunes Music Store is NOT the CD. As soon as the price on iTunes Music Store gets close to what I’d pay for the CD on Amazon, I’ll buy the CD and rip it, sans DRM.
$2 a track? Bah.
Maybe $2 is too much, $1.25?
But offer more than just songs, Lyrics is a good start. And higher bit-rate or even raw WAV format.