I just wanted to express my disappointment with your recent rate hikes on certain songs. I was always skeptical about online purchasing of music, but your trademark 99-cent cap is what won me over. Now that it seems you have thrown that out the window, I will no longer be purchasing music through your medium.
Instead I will be joining the masses disappointed I tune users back to Best Buy and other music stores that have managed to stay afloat. I would rather not stick around to watch 1.29 rise to 1.49 than to 1.89 and so on. I may end up paying a little more in the end but it comforts me greatly to know I have a physical hard copy in my possession that can not be accidentally erased or is extremely difficult to transfer to a new computer when your old system is dying out. For what its worth, I did enjoy the convenience of the download however my experience with digital downloading is over. I will attribute this to the greed of the Beatles and their feeling that their crumby old music is worth more than a buck. It’s not.
Thank you,
David M

Prepare for a shock: “Apple’s iTunes Store isn’t the only one that has adjusted prices for its digital song downloads recently: Changes are showing up at Amazon’s and Wal-Mart’s online music stores, too. […] In an e-mail, Walmart.com spokesman Ravi Jariwala said the pricing adjustments are ‘reflective of new costs set by the music industry.’”

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gVwBy9E7oT5RMa4a_h-1RWD31DZQD97EI0200

As stated in the Newsy video, the labels have been pressuring Apple to raise the price for years and the company did not yield to the request. If it wasn’t for Apple, the price increases would have happened sooner. Four years ago, when Jobs called the music industry executives “greedy” after they requested a price hike, Warner Music Group CEO Edgar Bronfman Jr. responded that Apple’s one-price policy was unfair. “We want, and will insist upon having, variable pricing,” said Bronfman. “To have only one price point is not fair to our artists, and I dare say not appropriate to consumers.”

http://www.redherring.com/Home/13702

“’[Apple] doesn’t mention whether or not user data are still buried in the tracks.”

The identifying information is “hidden in plain sight” in the Get Info window (ctrl-i), as has always been the case.

“Meanwhile, ‘Users cannot currently upgrade individual tracks or albums to iTunes Plus versions – they must upgrade everything at once,’ says a more recent Ars Technica post”

Try a yet more recent Ars Technica post.

http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2009/01/itunes-plus-drops-all-or-nothing-upgrades-goes-a-la-carte.ars

Reader’s Write Says: “I consider myself one of the Apple Mac faithful. However, this version of the shuffle will never be in this house and I predict it will sell VERY badly in comparison to their other models.”

It seems to be a bad call on your part.

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/04/01/ipod_shuffle_sales_surge_50_as_ipod_touch_maintains_top_slot.html

http://www.newsy.com/videos/itunes_changes_its_tone/

Gee, I dunno about that……did you try maybe NOT TREATING YOUR CONSUMERS LIKE CRIMINALS???!!!!

http://www.p2pnet.net/story/19812

And for the record, even though I have owned 4 iPod models, I have NEVER bought a single music track or video from iTunes. Plenty of apps that support developers but not a single track that supports the cartels.

Not all of Apple’s business models are broken you know. Some inventive bedroom coders are a lot wealthier because of them.