Shock! Disbelief! Amazon MP3 and Walmart ALSO Raise MP3 Prices!
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. Apple announces in January that iTunes will switch from fixed pricing ($0.99) to variable pricing ($1.29, $0.99, $0.69) on music singles in April. Reports follow that show Apple was forced to concede on variable pricing — something long demanded by the music labels — in exchange for getting permission to provide over the air (OTA) music downloads via the 3G and EDGE networks on the iPhone. (Whether that concession was ultimately good or bad for consumers we’ll argue another day).
April comes, and just as Apple says, variable pricing hits the US iTunes Store. And the interwebs darn near ’splodes in crazy. Apple is the devil. Amazon is cheaper. People will flock to MP3. Here’s a great way to switch over to buying from some store that is other!
The sun sets, the furor spreads, a new day dawns and — Boom! — we find out Amazon MP3 and Walmart are — surprise surprise — also raising prices.
Shocked. Shocked are we to find out gouging is going on by Big Media!
[via Macworld]
April 8th, 2009 at 11:53 am
“And the interwebs darn near ’splodes in crazy”
LOL…. good form Petah… good form.
April 8th, 2009 at 11:55 am
This will probably force people to downloading illegally more often. $1.29 for one song is kind of ridiculous if you ask me.
April 8th, 2009 at 12:02 pm
As if the Internet community needed more of a reason to download illegally.
April 8th, 2009 at 1:02 pm
Isn’t it called inflation?
April 8th, 2009 at 1:15 pm
They also gave into record companies to get DRM free tracks as the norm. So for 29 cents more you get DRM free and a much higher bitrate so it’s not that bad.
Another part of me is actually happy becuase I love music / bands, but now everyone just downloads one track from here, one track from there. It’s kind of sad the idea of an album is almost gone. I say this because it seems like the album prices are still at $9.99, maybe encourage people to buy albums again.
April 8th, 2009 at 1:35 pm
Yea know i’ve been waiting for the uproar today, now that the other stores have raised their prices. Apple at least told us they were going to
April 8th, 2009 at 1:43 pm
@Justin Well then not all but most bands should have more then 1 or 2 songs on their album worth buying. These days if you buy a album you are usually buying it for 1 or 2 tracks since many tracks are garbage these days…
April 8th, 2009 at 2:09 pm
Recording industry= biggest idiots. I was ok with 99 cents a song, but song be paying 1.29 for it
April 8th, 2009 at 2:10 pm
Won’t…….stupid iPhone
April 8th, 2009 at 2:40 pm
Are there any anti-trust lawyers working in the Obama Administration yet?
April 8th, 2009 at 2:42 pm
Sadly, I’ve heard Biden is pro Big Media, and they’ll be staffing with pro-ACTA/DMCA types
April 8th, 2009 at 2:58 pm
Off-topic, but I just want to see the rappers, hip-hoppers, and other worthless freaks disappear for good sometime before I die. How long are brainless trendy fools going to support these illiterate ret@rds? My colon has more musical talent.
April 8th, 2009 at 3:58 pm
Until music is offered uncompressed I’ll never purchase music for download OTA or otherwise.
@Steve: Please refrain from pointing fingers as the “worthless freaks” as you so eliquently put it, exist across all genres of music. One that same note they will continue to exist as long as people buy what their selling.
April 8th, 2009 at 4:32 pm
@Wyatt:
Please refrain from your OTA download opinions. They will exist as long as people want to download that way.
April 8th, 2009 at 6:44 pm
Prices went up from $1.69 to $2.19, including some pretty average selling singles from a decade ago. Instead of buying them through iTunes, as I planned – I downloaded then via a torrent!
April 8th, 2009 at 11:40 pm
Inflation!!! Now! The prices are falling down due to the current market situation “financial crisis”. I don’t know how did they think that people are willing to pay more.
April 8th, 2009 at 11:48 pm
This is why I get my songs for free. I won’t give them $ to drive around in 100k cars.
April 9th, 2009 at 4:37 am
Steve, that reminds me…anyone see the new south park this week? The kanye west bit had me rollin
April 9th, 2009 at 9:22 pm
No problem