iTunes To Raise Prices

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I guess we all knew this day was coming, the day when Apple finally raised prices. The good news is, the increase is only for “some” songs. The bad news is that this will no doubt open the flood gates for everyone else to demand $1.29 per song now too.

"This will be a PR nightmare," predicted former EMI Music executive Ted Cohen, who is managing partner of digital media consulting firm TAG Strategic. "It is for the music industry what the AIG bonuses are for the insurance industry."
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See what happens when Steve Jobs isn’t around? Someone go get his ass out of bed and make him fix this.
 
Sheesh, I was half thinking of buying a lot of tracks off of itunes, but that's a hefty price hike considering that's 3 songs at that price instead of 4, for the same amount of cash... it adds up.
 
Why buy from them anyway? Keep buying from Amazon. Tell the music companies that DRM is NOT acceptable. :)
 
No thanks. I'll stick with Spotify and listen to unlimited music at home for free (or $12 a month without ads). I prefer to enjoy music rather than buy to own "products".
 
JimmiG said:
No thanks. I'll stick with Spotify and listen to unlimited music at home for free (or $12 a month without ads). I prefer to enjoy music rather than buy to own "products".
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160Kbp/s max. I'll pass.
 
It seems like $1.30 is becoming the new dollar everywhere; kind of makes sense considering the dollar to euro exchange rate is $1.30.
 
What idiot at Apple agreed to that? The music industry just made Apple its bitch.

I hope customers don't buy the price increased songs.
 
Well, Im done buying from apple now. And not only that, even a 20 ounce soda in a bottle is 1.29 now at my local stores.
 
We ALL knew this was coming. I mean the $.99 model has been around for more than 5 years... How many things do we know that are STILL the same price as they were 5 years ago... It's the price of economy/inflation.

Don't blame apple, blame the world banks.
 
for those of you that buy music off of amazon, do you recommend it? do they have a good selection? I've always gotten my music from apple, but with this ridiculous decision I no longer will be...
 
djgizmo said:
We ALL knew this was coming. I mean the $.99 model has been around for more than 5 years... How many things do we know that are STILL the same price as they were 5 years ago... It's the price of economy/inflation.

Don't blame apple, blame the world banks.
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Given the current economic climate... inflation/price increases is the LAST thing that should be happening right now if you want to retain customers and sales levels you haven't already lost due to the crunch and spending cutbacks.
 
Kaitian said:
Uhh I thought Apple was dropping the DRM thing.
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Only if you pay extra to unlock the already DRM'ed tracks you own before they offered them without DRM... and you can't just pay on a per song basis. You have to pay in full to unlock all or nothing when it comes to every track that you purchased from iTunes that has DRM on it.
 
lundo13 said:
for those of you that buy music off of amazon, do you recommend it? do they have a good selection? I've always gotten my music from apple, but with this ridiculous decision I no longer will be...
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I love it...cheap music...DRM-free....they constantly give me free songs

I will never buy from itunes...never. Especially when you have amazon which is 100 times better.
 
Amazon's been awesome ever since they introduced their MP3 Daily Deal and the Five on Friday sale. I've spent more money on Amazon downloads in the past year than I've spent on iTunes in five years.

http://twitter.com/amazonmp3
 
ComputerBox34 said:
I love it...cheap music...DRM-free....they constantly give me free songs

I will never buy from itunes...never. Especially when you have amazon which is 100 times better.
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I just downloaded an album "99 most relaxing songs" on amazon (Found on SD), and it was $0.99 for 99 songs. The music is great, but I enjoyed the DRM free high quality music that was downloaded to my computer. What drew me to Apple was my iPod and I never really looked anywhere else. Then again, I don't run into problems with licensing since I can unregister and register computers-->something MS should do, when you want to remove office from an old computer to a new one (ughh...that bugged me!)
 
Saturn_V said:
Amazon's been awesome ever since they introduced their MP3 Daily Deal and the Five on Friday sale. I've spent more money on Amazon downloads in the past year than I've spent on iTunes in five years.

http://twitter.com/amazonmp3
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I 100% fully agree. I've spent a lot more on music now that it's 1. DRM Free (absolute must for me). 2. Is a decent bit rate. Ever since getting a decent stereo system where I notice the difference between 128kbps, 160kbps, and 256kbps, it has been totally worth it to me to get the highest quality MP3s I can (for the money). Right now, Amazon is it. The day they introduce DRM is the day I give them the birdy just like I gave iTunes and stop buying their stuff. Wish the music industry would wake up and realize this. They waste so much time fretting about how much money they are "losing" while on the other hand they drive away their customers by their paranoia. *sigh* :rolleyes:
 
Woo! Another reason to tell some Crapple fanboys at school why I hate this damn company so much =)
 
djgizmo said:
We ALL knew this was coming. I mean the $.99 model has been around for more than 5 years... How many things do we know that are STILL the same price as they were 5 years ago... It's the price of economy/inflation.

Don't blame apple, blame the world banks.
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Bandwidth is cheaper and storage is cheaper. Most of my computer's components have gone down in price or gotten a lot better for the same price.
 
""This will be a PR nightmare," predicted former EMI Music executive Ted Cohen"

Then why the hell did YOUR music industry push for it?

This guy is trying to make it look like it's All greedy Apple's fault. Sheesh. These people really are snakes...
 
Thankfully the older I get the less I really feel the need to buy any music anyway. With Amazon around for the occasional purchase that I do make this is not much of a issue yet for me. Still reading up on this the record exec's are still talking about album sales. They think that offering packaged downloads will entice people to buy more songs at once lol. I guess that depends on what the choices are. I don't see much value buying more than one song to get one good one. Even if I have to pay more for just the one song.
 
BladeVenom said:
Bandwidth is cheaper and storage is cheaper. Most of my computer's components have gone down in price or gotten a lot better for the same price.
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You can't compare music to hardware. Tech is mostly an exception to inflation as it's always evolving and improving at the same time getting more affordable to produce as tech gets smaller and smaller. Music is not a physical item that obviously cannot be compared to hardware and it does not depreciate in value.
 
Exactly music is not a PHYSICAL item it can be copied many times over for little to no cost with digital distribution and very cheaply with cds.
 
I still don't buy music, and I certainly don't plan on starting now.

For bands I enjoy, I buy tickets to their shows, their merch, etc. 100% of that goes to the artist. They get a buck or so if I buy the CD. Buying one shirt will give them more money then buying all the albums. /shrug.
 
e2g said:
I just downloaded an album "99 most relaxing songs" on amazon (Found on SD), and it was $0.99 for 99 songs. The music is great, but I enjoyed the DRM free high quality music that was downloaded to my computer. What drew me to Apple was my iPod and I never really looked anywhere else. Then again, I don't run into problems with licensing since I can unregister and register computers-->something MS should do, when you want to remove office from an old computer to a new one (ughh...that bugged me!)
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You could unregister computers when Napster was still using PlaysForSure WMA for DRM. I had a Napster account when it was "all you can download", had several DVDRs full of tracks I downloaded after cracking the DRM out of it. When I moved to a different laptop for a primary system, I was able to easily unregister the old system from my Napster account.

It's really up to the providers and not who made the format.
 
Who cares? Amazon's a better place to buy songs online anyway; not necessarily to browse, but definitely to buy... They're often cheaper, and all their files are DRM-free MP3s and high bitrate encodes, not just a selection. They must be having a party over there after hearing this. If only Amazon worked outside of the US... :mad: I hate the grey space Puerto Rico seems to occupy for most shipping & online purchase stuff, neither international nor US, just in the middle. /rant off
 
at 30% increase in price in the middle of a recession? What ad wizards thought up that one?
 
The same ones that thought suing their customers was good business strategy.
 
If Amazon did raise their prices it would likely be to $.99, not $1.29.

You must understand one thing. Apple has enjoyed huge growth and their stock prices are high. They want to keep their profits up to keep their stock prices high. With the economy tanking they are having trouble getting people to swallow their "Apple Tax". They charge a premium for their products and people lap it up. With the economy weak Apple's sales are dropping. Microsoft's newest add hits home hard. A 17" laptop will set you back well over $1000, but you can find a non Apple 17" laptop for several hundred less for similarly equipped laptops.

So how does Apple try to keep its profits up. iTunes makes money, but their big haul with their iPods and iPhones. When those sales drop they think they can reverse things and make the big bucks off iTunes instead. Well Amazon can make money, not much, but some off their $.79 downloads then Apple is looking at at least doubling or more the proffits they make off iTunes. Will the market support it, or will they drive their customers to Amazon or illegal P2P downloads?

Amazon on the other hand is not looking at MP3s as a single big money draw. Their margins are typically pretty thin and they rely on volume to make their money. MP3 downloads are just another way to keep that volume up. Provide more services and products while keeping the prices high. Apple is more about keeping margins high. I would stick with Amazon.
 
coolrunnings said:
Why buy from them anyway? Keep buying from Amazon. Tell the music companies that DRM is NOT acceptable. :)
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The majority of sonngs on iTunes are DRM Free now. Its called iTunes Plus, and after you purchased a song you can right click, and 'Convert to MP3" ;)
 
Todd_a said:
If Amazon did raise their prices it would likely be to $.99, not $1.29.

You must understand one thing. Apple has enjoyed huge growth and their stock prices are high. They want to keep their profits up to keep their stock prices high. With the economy tanking they are having trouble getting people to swallow their "Apple Tax". They charge a premium for their products and people lap it up. With the economy weak Apple's sales are dropping. Microsoft's newest add hits home hard. A 17" laptop will set you back well over $1000, but you can find a non Apple 17" laptop for several hundred less for similarly equipped laptops.

So how does Apple try to keep its profits up. iTunes makes money, but their big haul with their iPods and iPhones. When those sales drop they think they can reverse things and make the big bucks off iTunes instead. Well Amazon can make money, not much, but some off their $.79 downloads then Apple is looking at at least doubling or more the proffits they make off iTunes. Will the market support it, or will they drive their customers to Amazon or illegal P2P downloads?

Amazon on the other hand is not looking at MP3s as a single big money draw. Their margins are typically pretty thin and they rely on volume to make their money. MP3 downloads are just another way to keep that volume up. Provide more services and products while keeping the prices high. Apple is more about keeping margins high. I would stick with Amazon.
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No, this has less to do with Apple wanting more profits and more to do with the record companies wanting more. Apple had to make some concessions in negotiations to get the DRM removed. This was it. I am guessing that Apple is seeing almost NONE of this price increase.
 
Some songs are $1.29 and some songs are $0.69. I don't even own an iPod (and hate iTune), but geez if this isn't just click-bait.

Last Updated: January 6, 2009: 3:46 PM ET
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Apple unveiled a change in the pricing structure for its iTunes music downloads Tuesday, ending the 99-cents-a-song pricing that has helped iTunes dominate the industry.
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Schiller said iTunes will now offer three price points for songs: 69 cents, 99 cents and $1.29.
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