Adjusted Price Songs Appearing in iTunes

[voodoofish]

Just for the record, the main article here is wrong.



This is not true.

Last night all the tracks that were not yet DRM free (and there were a lot), were removed from the store.

There are actually a lot of tracks (my guess is about 10% of the store) that the studios did not allow to be converted to DRM free and were removed instead. Check out John Lennon's page for instance. Used to be three pages of albums, now it's a single page.

Also, there are no $.69 tracks yet. Even on extremely ancient stuff like swing music recorded in the 40's. Certainly at least some obscure 70's bands should be $.69 tracks, but they are not. Nothing is.

The whole thing is a scam. iTunes is now DRM free, but the selection is even poorer than it already was and the prices are higher than any other online store.

i just noticed this too - an EP i bought from itunes years ago had not been upgraded to itunes plus and now it's not available on the itunes store anymore! not really what i was expecting when they said all the music would be drm free!

 

[voodoofish]

also itunes has listed some "great songs" you can get for 59p on the iTunes Store UK.

 

[AJ1BostonMASS]

Well.

Well, I am glad I bought some of those songs when they were $.99 because I would not pay $1.29 for some of these songs.

Since Amazon has drm free music for only $.99 I can see them becoming more popular.

 

[Goona]

Well, I am glad I bought some of those songs when they were $.99 because I would not pay $1.29 for some of these songs.

Since Amazon has drm free music for only $.99 I can see them becoming more popular.

Damn, Amazon has has songs for 1.29 so good luck going there.

 

[synth3tik]

Screw you iTunes. I'm not going to pay more for something because it sucks, but is totally "popular" at the time. I just don't care to deal with it.

I would be more reluctant to buy stuff if the price might vary, or if I might accidentally bout a bunch or songs for $1.30

 

[compuguy1088]

Moving to Amazon. Now.

I've allready been buying most of my music from the amazon mp3 store....minus the one or two albums....

 

[compuguy1088]

And yet I still have songs that cannot be upgraded. As far as my searching has found so far, "DRM-free" means they've pulled anything from the store that couldn't be upgraded.

Edit: OK, I found one song that's still protected in my library that's still available in the store. But it's iTunes Plus in the store and yet I can't upgrade.

Same here....for example I bought the Band of Brothers soundtrack when it was a drm'ed version. Its finally been upgraded to Itunes plus....but I cannot upgrade to it!!!

 

[compuguy1088]

Right and obviously that's part of the plan. If music companies tell Apple they need to drive individual song prices up, then the value of buying the whole album increases. In the long run, they are getting more of what they wanted from the get go. In stores, what were we forced to do? Buy the whole CD. Whether certain songs were well put together or not, if we wanted our 4 favorite songs that we heard on the radio, we had to take the bad as well.

That problem has been around for iTunes for quite awhile. I was able to find more albums on Amazon that allowed me to pick and choose over iTunes.

 

[weaponofgod]

Amazon has increased the price on some of their older classics, as well. For alot of the older stuff I was looking for I've found that if it is $1.29 on itunes then its $1.29 on amazon. *Edit* After a closer look Amazon doesn't seem to have marked up as many of their older tracks as itunes. At least for now.

 

[Eric S.]

Screw you iTunes. I'm not going to pay more for something because it sucks, but is totally "popular" at the time. I just don't care to deal with it.

So you would pay 99 cents for something because it sucks, but is totally "popular" at the time?

 

[Goona]

Amazon has increased the price on some of their older classics, as well. For alot of the older stuff I was looking for I've found that if it is $1.29 on itunes then its $1.29 on amazon. *Edit* After a closer look Amazon doesn't seem to have marked up as many of their older tracks as itunes. At least for now.

Dude you know Apple has 10 million songs compared to Amazon's 5, of course itunes will have more songs with higher prices.

 

[nick9191]

at the Amazon fanboys.

 

[mojohanna]

Just go to Amazon.com!

Everything is still just $0.99 or $0.89...

Songs from the 70s and 80s are now selling for $1.29 on iTunes. It's ridiculous considering Amazon has the same songs, DRM free, for cheaper. Everyone should just switch to Amazon and send the record companies a message.

How is this sending a message to the record companies? They are still getting the revenue, just from a different distributor. All that will do is hurt Apple. Apple should be hammering the music labels with fair pricing. If Amazon does not change soon (unless they are taking a smaller margin than Apple) I would guess that there would be some legal means Apple could take to level the playing field.

 

[Goona]

How is this sending a message to the record companies? They are still getting the revenue, just from a different distributor. All that will do is hurt Apple. Apple should be hammering the music labels with fair pricing. If Amazon does not change soon (unless they are taking a smaller margin than Apple) I would guess that there would be some legal means Apple could take to level the playing field.

The thing is the pries aren't cheaper on Amazon, they also have songs for 1.29, it's just less noticeable because they only have 5 millions song compared to 10 million for itunes.

 

[hexonxonx]

Though this increase should not be happening, I'm glad it's not just Apple but Amazon as well. I thought that Apple was just being singled out.

 

[alchemistmuffin]

i just noticed this too - an EP i bought from itunes years ago had not been upgraded to itunes plus and now it's not available on the itunes store anymore! not really what i was expecting when they said all the music would be drm free!

the songs that were removed are being converted to DRM free, some are being remastered by Apple.

 

[Goona]

at the Amazon fanboys.

You just have to laugh at them.

 

[jons]

Even songs from the early 80's are $1.29, WTF Apple!

Yeah, I saw this coming. This is gonna suck.

 

[LizKat]

It would suck the bottom lines of the labels less if they did this during some time other than the biggest chance in their lifetime to lose money during a recession. Dumb as a box of cat litter.

 

[sswanky]

Oh it's a book, can you just give me the gist? Also, you misspelt "crucial"

Yeah, it takes a whole book to 'splain it and thanks for the grammar lesson, I'm sure your mom is proud of you.

 

[Shaun.P]

I haven't noticed any £0.69 songs yet, but I've seen a few £0.99.

For me, £0.99 is just too much to pay for a song. At £0.79 it's an impulse buy for me, "Oh it's only 79p!". £1 just psychologically seems more substantial.

I have used Amazon to buy one song and the procedure was pretty harmless. I think I might start using them a bit more.

 

[polska9]

i have yet to find a song for .69 cents.

 

[synth3tik]

lol. The RIAA only operates in america. And the BPI only focus on heavy uploaders, and even then my ISP has signed no agreements with the BPI to turn over filesharers, unlike other shoddy companies (cough virgin media). And furthermore, I download nowhere near enough stuff to even get noticed, literally one album a month, if that, and even if I did get noticed:



Yes, I would stop if I received a warning letter, but I know plenty of people who download a hell of a lot more, and are probably heavy seeders also, something I don't partake in at all.

Anyway, I'm not being all self-righteous "screw you guys paying for things", because even now I will pay to download songs every now and then from my iPod touch, I'm just saying, they need to entice me more, and stop being douches if they want me to buy stuff.

By the way, so you know, I just rented Ocean's Eleven from iTunes because it's 99p, and I've always wanted to see it. It's far faster than downloading a film over bittorrent, and also far easier, because there's no converting necessary. I wouldn't have payed money for this otherwise. This is the kind of thing that will keep me spending money, because pirates just can't compete.

Ok, so you got it. Your so damn smart you figured out how to screw them all over. I just wanted to say thanks for taking my money. I may very well loose my place, but your right. You do deserve to have everything that everyone else works so hard for free. Your just that cool.


Don't get me wrong. I think the new pricing structure is total crap, but you still have places like Amazon, and emusic. Also a lot of bands sell their music through snocap, so you can buy and download songs from their myspace, facebook, whatever.

Also for those thinking the music industry is anti-iTunes. I ask, if they were so anti-itunes, why are they on iTunes. A: because they make money.

 

[larrybeo]

Amazon has albums for $4.99

And "featured" singles for $.79 cents. Apple's iTunes is absurd. Where are the $.69 cent songs at? Rick Nelson's "Garden Party" isn't even $.69 cents. Has anyone found a song that is the lower price point? I'm never buying an iTunes card again!

 

[larrybeo]

Ok, so you got it. Your so damn smart you figured out how to screw them all over. I just wanted to say thanks for taking my money. I may very well loose my place, but your right. You do deserve to have everything that everyone else works so hard for free. Your just that cool.

Ummmm - you can get it for free if you wanted to as well. Just thought I'd through that out there. Personally, I've started to use Limewire more often to get songs because I find it more convenient than getting a 256kps song from iTunes and then converting it down to 160kps. I still download songs over 3G.. but they are just so big anymore. And pay $1.29 for a song? That's for the birds. Amazon is way cheaper.