Apple iTunes: Balancing on the Edge of Mac the Knife

While Apple has denied any immediate price changes, both the New York Post and The Register are reporting that the Record Labels are pushing to increase the price per song for Apple's iTunes from 99 cents to $1.25, and the per-album price from $9.99 to $16.99. This is hardly a big surprise since prior to the success of the iTunes Music Store, the Record Labels had been demanding much higher prices from other legal music download services. Apple may now be denying any price increase, but this is most likely because of the obvious public displeasure with early reports. People were not going to stand for the price increase at this time.







We here at Mod-BLog are avid users of the iTunes Music Store, both for playing thru iTunes and our iPods. The Record Labels need to understand however that they are skating on a knife's edge with downloadable music. Everyone agrees that the artists and the labels are due profit ("...the worker deserves his wages." - John 10:7 NIV) but at the same time, one must be careful what one charges for an intangible item. It is easy to charge for a house - we know what materials go into it, what workmen are required to build it, and the advantages of its location. It is harder to choose for encoded bits of intellectual property. (And I am a writer of short stories, so I am familiar with spending hours and hours on data, and having no chance to get much money for it.) Ninety-nine cents is still the sweet spots for downloadable songs, and that will not change for another year or so. Take it slow, take it easy, and be mindful that the internet really has changed everything.