iTunes price hike doesn’t do much: reports
p2pnet news view Music:- When Apple’s iTunes, its iPod online loader funded by Macolytes, introduced variable pricing recently, most of the catalogue, “remained unchanged,” with increases for the most popular songs, The Register‘s Andrew Orlowski says.
Did that result in an influx of cash for Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music.
It did not, says The Register, quoting Billboard and Digital Music News.
“Billboard notes that after four weeks, both $1.29 and $0.99 songs have, as expected, experienced a decline in revenue, down 34.5 per cent and 29 per cent,” it says, going on:
“There’s no mention in either report of the Ella Fitzgerald effect: would price reductions on back catalog begin to shift these golden oldies? But sadly, in cold economic terms, maybe that doesn’t matter very much.”
Meanwhile, “What will the next step be?” – wonders DownloadSquad.
“Reduced pricing? Possibly. One source stated ‘various price-points are probably going to be adjusted in an attempt to increase and optimize results’.
“Results? Gee, thanks. That makes me feel all warm and fuzzy about the monetary support I provide.”
The Register – iTunes: prices up, revenue down?, May 6, 2009
DownloadSquad – iTunes price hike fallout: labels making less money, May 7, 2009
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May 7th, 2009 at 4:22 pm
No one but the copyright holders think mp3s are worth that much. Most won’t buy them but would buy the physical cd as they still see value in that. You have a small percentage that are buying compared to the public at large.
Reduced pricing is a sign that highway robbery pricing isn’t working.
May 8th, 2009 at 6:22 am
i’ll buy 0s and 1s that i could have in a cd when they reduce the price by closer to 100 per cent.
May 9th, 2009 at 5:21 am
Funny, not any of the recent articles concerning the profitablility of the music industry (including the hubbub over the RIAA’s absurdly abusive behaviour) have touched on the #1 top-notch single most compelling reason I have spent less and less money on music over the years, most notably the last 5 or 6.
First, let me explain why this is significant. For a number of years the greatest expense I had at all was music – before I had to pay rent, of course. But even after college and in the real world, the bulk of my entertainment budget was earmarked for music – ahead of movies, appliances, dining-out –everything except maybe the hi-fi to listen to it on.
I am an audiophile. Music is my absolute SOUL – I have been hooked ever since I was 13 when I told my dad I wanted to with him to Tower Records (a regular trip for him) because I wanted to buy a song I heard (on am radio, mind you – I would stay up til 4am waitng for my favorite radio station to play the song I requested so I could record it on my portable cassette player, but I was becoming sleep deprived). When I hummed it to him because I didn’t know the name, he walked over to the shelf and plucked a 45 from his considerable collection and handed it to me (turned out to be “Break my Stride” by Mattew Wilder) and I haven’t been the same since. From that point on I would accompany him on ALL his trips to Tower, would harrass the employees with my renditions of songs I couldn’t identify and became entirely familiar with the giant yellow book they kept in the center of the store which was a database of the songs and the artists. At 15 when I got my work permit so I could get a job at the Wherehouse I might has well have had them pay me in store credit. I consumed 45′s and LP’s like candy and would even buy albums before I heard stuff on it if it was an artist I already liked pretty well (A-ha does have more than one, you know) or if the single wasn’t available and I liked one or two songs.
I hated cassettes. Too likely to be eaten by the player and necessitated the buying of a machine with AMS, but I had to move to them for a while because the CD’s had hit the market and they started pulling the vinyl for shelf space. I just couldn’t stomach paying $22.00 or more for the same stuff I used to buy for 6.99, so I bit the bullet and paid 8.99 for the tapes. I made great use of that Music Choice or whatever it was called where you could make your own mixtape in the store from certain songs that participated in the program; the quality wasn’t as good, but it was preferable when there was only one or two songs I liked from an album or such. If I could I bought the cassette single, which Tower carried and I still visited despite my working for the competition. This behaviour continued even til the giant yellow book _which was becoming ever thicker – was replaced with a touch screen computer, but I had to temper my purchasing habits a bit, because even the cassettes were losing ground to the CD’s which were still out of reach for me at $18.99. I shifted to used LP stores and discovered an entire wealth of music from generations past. The best job I ever had was as an exotic dancer where I would bring in my music for the dj to cue up 20 minute sets on tapes.
I held out for as long as I could, and then the dreaded thing happened: the club would take CD’s only! So I reluctantly ponied up the cash for many tunes I already owned in a different format, and bought as much used as I could, and fell in love with one of the djs who had an admirable and eclectic collection of more than the current pop/metal classics that everyone played, and tipped heavily the ones who would find me the songs I wanted and add them to their collections. One in particular had been digging up a great deal of stuff and I finally got curious as to where this was coming from. When I inquired, he told me about a wonderous thing called “Napster” and I actually bought a PC despite being an Apple follower simply because I couldn’t get the “audiogalaxy” software for the G4! I freely admit to dowloading music – I was one of the early joiners and a HUGE fan of Morpheus even when I was on a 56k modem (it hasn’t been the same since it’s demise). Mostly it was a cost effective way to digitize my music collection for the purpose of using it at work, because the stuff that was available was overplayed and most of it was crap anyway. I was at least making enough money though, that I could buy CD’s of the stuff that was either too obscure for the net to have or if it was something by Sting.
But I had noticed a change. There were not nearly as many trips to Tower that I was compelled to take, and when I did go, my load was light even though I had the money to buy CD’s (which were STILL too expensive for my tastes if not my wallet). At first I thought maybe it was just getting older that was the reason the music on the radio (soley fm now) seemed a little lackluster, but since I share his genes and my Dad bought an album by Cinderella because he really liked the song “Shake Me,” I am concluding that maybe the producers were not really anything but putting together paint-by -number boy and girl bands and pushing bubble-gum pop and shit that all started to sound the same. It got rarer and rarer for me to find a group whose album I would buy unheard, and now my very occassional peek at the cd shelves is only motivated by a specific desire to find something particular – on these, the only occassions I even go to the store to buy music now, usually I will buy only 1 cd. The last time I did that was over a year ago at least. And you know what? The cd I bought was one they don’t even play in the mainstream media. I found it on a p2p network by accident and liked it. The next one I want to buy I can’t even FIND on Itunes or anyplace else that sells music legally online because it’s a bit obscure – I heard it once at the house of a pickup that turned out to be more fun than karaoke bar where we met. If I could find it being shared I would have dl’d it to listen to until I can find the damned cd anywhere to purchase it! (And writing this has inspired me that maybe its time to make a trek to Tower – if they haven’t got it, no one does and I’ll have to order it special)
The RIAA has outlived its usefullness. Garage bands can cut their own CDs in a home studio for less money than they used to have to pay the producers, and if they are savvy they can promote themselves and be heard even without the support of an FM radio single. It isn’t really that fileshareing has killed them so much as the emergence of the internet itself, since the monopoly they held on a gateway to the public ear is now worth much less in and of itself. With so many alternatives to even what sources we listen to, the bands no longer require the services that the RIAA used to provide to get them a coveted spot on a playlist heard on the handful of syndicated stations. When they began CREATING bands by formula to woo advertisers instead of supporting real talent, it put the final nail in the coffin. To quote Grease II, “Johnny just hasn’t learned: when you’re dead, lie down!”
When is anybody going to wonder if maybe the reason people don’t want to buy music is because they aren’t offering anything GOOD? Even the stuff people are getting sued over is all pretty much pre-2002, right? I wonder if maybe some indie bands aren’t making some cash – even if it isn’t the millions of yore – with a little direct marketing or in circles that aren’t readily as measurable as Itunes. AND come to think of it, maybe this whole thing is a way of evening the playing field a little. Now being a rock-star isn’t quite what it used to be, and maybe it feels a little more like work?