iTunes Price Increase: Does It Make ANY Sense?
About two weeks ago at the MacWorld Expo, there were a couple of non-announcements - one being that iTunes Store pricing was going to change. From what people told me, there would now be two price points - some songs would drop down to $0.69 (with DRM protection) while DRM-free songs would be marked up to $1.29. But that’s not actually the explanation for the new pricing format.
Apple has marked down some songs to $0.69 (I have yet to find any of these while searching for music), kept others at $0.99 and then set a third tier of more popular songs at $1.29 each.
For a music fan like me who has that immediate itch to hear something, I have absolutely no qualms with actually PAYING for my music. As a result, I use the iTunes store a lot, and I usually spend about $60-70 per month on music (in the form of 6-7 albums) there. Every album I’ve purchased has been $9.99 or $6.99 (sometimes they have ’sales’).
Ever since this announcement though, I’ve noticed that every single album I’ve tried to buy has been $11.99.
If you’ve even set foot into an actual record store in the past three years you’ll know that $11.99 for a DIGITAL version of an album is a complete ripoff - most albums can be had for a dollar or two more, and in the case of popular/top 40 albums, it costs the consumer LESS to purchase the physical CD.
HMV sells several hundred different CDs every week that are priced at two for $20 or two for $25. Even the more expensive CDs in this case cost $12.50 each - that’s less than a dollar more than buying it on iTunes, and you get the physical CD to put on your shelf, plus the liner notes, etc. And you can just burn the album yourself to dump it on your mp3 player. Some of HMV’s CDs are FIVE DOLLARS. Future Shop sells CDs for $10 and even Rotate and other douchey record stores sell them for $12 or $13.
Why would I pay $11.99 for a digital album on iTunes when I can buy the physical CD for less in store, or even the vinyl + digital download for a few dollars more? Disobeying the psychological barrier of $0.99 has worked on me - this whole thing has been such a turnoff that I’ve gone from buying six albums a month to zero albums.
Apple has stated that “the risks of the strategy — that consumers will be confused or turned away — have declined a lot since iTunes launched with uniform pricing in 2003.” Apple currently has an estimated 80 percent share of the digital download market…I wonder if this will change with the varied pricing now.
February 6th, 2009 at 1:15 PM
i think the logic of the price increase would be the price of convenience, and the simple fact that “they can”. many people prefer to get their stuff immediately, rather than a trip to a record store (a shame i know).
but that’s the best reason i can think of. oh, and the capitalist minsdet: if we have millions of customers downloading our music, and we increase price by a dollar (something that won’t stop them from buying), we can make millions and millions more, wheeeee!
…ryan