Amazon and Wal-Mart MP3 Stores Adopt Variable Pricing

[rockosmodurnlif]

people pay for music

Yes, some of us realize it costs money to make music.

Beyond supporting the artist I support the labels, such as Ninja Tune, Verve, Century Media, Naxos, Epic because if it sells the labels will seek out more of the same. Hence the god awful state of current popular music, well not the entire cause but it does contribute. And quite frankly, I have a life and don't have to time to hunt down every obscure artist's myspace to see if they're good (most times they're not), so if one of my preferred labels is willing to take a chance, I'm willing to take a listen (provided there are free samples or tracks).

I've cut down pirating and find I'm getting more good music more often because I'm not downloading all the crap that's fit to torrent. I say I've cut down because I still hunt down the bonus tracks you can only get on foreign releases or singles but aren't available for digital purchase for some reason. I don't understand that.

 

[DELLsFan]

Thanks, it's people like you who ruin our jobs (and whatever passion we may have in making music quickly disappears when we realize that there is no money coming in at all)

Oh, come on now ... the 3 or 4 lines of cocaine at that producer's party, or the booze-fest bonanzas at all those raves didn't have anything to do with ruining all that passion? Work those fingers to the bone all day and it's just so damned stressful dodging the paparazzi on the way home! Life sucks!

 

[SpaceKitty]

people pay for music

I bought a CD on my iPhone at work just last night. It felt good to and made me happy. Try it sine time.

 

[leonstafford]

supply v demand v WTF ?!?

does it cost more for Bill Ray to pump out "Achey breakie" than it does for Tone Loc to squeeze out a Funky Cold Medina?

supply demand only applies when there is an actual limit to the supply.

oh, those poor Chinese labourers sitting all day copying mp3s from Zip disk to MO drive everytime someone clicks the Buy Now button on their iPhones....woe is they

I'm very disappointed at Apple for handing their balls over on this one....

 

[likemyorbs]

And quite frankly, I have a life and don't have to time to hunt down every obscure artist's myspace to see if they're good (most times they're not), so if one of my preferred labels is willing to take a chance, I'm willing to take a listen (provided there are free samples or tracks).

thats the kind of thinking record labels love. i dont download everything that will fit in a torrent, i download individual tracks as i want them, just like i would do if i paid for them. my itunes library would cost much more than my iphone itself, im not rich like the people who made those songs on my playlist, i dont pirate poor indie musicians. therefore, ill never feel bad about not paying for music. however, i would feel bad if i looked at the number of tracks in my music library and thought about how much i paid for them and didnt have to.

 

[MagnusVonMagnum]

Wow - a 30% - 40% price hike. Might as well buy the physical CD instead.

Tony

Isn't that what the record companies have wanted all along? They make MUCH more profit when you buy the whole album than a single song. Given most albums sucks as a whole these days, getting to buy just the GOOD songs is still a deal, even if slightly higher. Pushing to make a couple of singles and write filler for the rest of the album has been a standard for pop music forever, but starts to fall apart when you're not forced to buy the filler.

 

[KilljoyPBN]

You guys have to understand 30% is a HUGE increase in business terms.

It will be interesting to see how it works out for the music industry. I guess Im going back to torrents. BTW **** Metallica.

 

[SFStateStudent]

These guys are already making a killing and the stuff isn't really that good. I'm going by the used CD/DVD store and buy music and movies at a fraction of the cost. I can buy a CD for $4.99 or less, a DVD for $7.99 or less, and a Blu-Ray disc for around $10.99...

 

[xparaparafreakx]

Good thing im belong to a record pool.

$99 a month for weekly dvds of music videos sent to my house. They even have them as mp4 digital files as an option.

Most regular people that buy music through iTunes. I ask some people and they did not know amazon and wal-mart sold digital music.

 

[Music_Producer]

Oh, come on now ... the 3 or 4 lines of cocaine at that producer's party, or the booze-fest bonanzas at all those raves didn't have anything to do with ruining all that passion? Work those fingers to the bone all day and it's just so damned stressful dodging the paparazzi on the way home! Life sucks!

What? do you think ALL producers live like that? Do you think it just takes a producer to create everything? Do you think I live like that? If I did I wouldn't loiter around macrumors for sure, I'd be busy getting high.. right?

Seriously, stop being myopic and acting so ignorant. Just like you have rich producers living such lifestyles, you also have average/poor producers, mixing engineers, studio techs, staff, etc living a lower than average lifestyle.

That's like saying Will Smith is so rich.. so let's just stop watching his movies. And so WHAT if this producer is rich and can afford this house and this lifestyle? Obviously he has TALENT - if everyone could make a song in 5 minutes (like someone said) heck, we'd all be living that lifestyle too.

Fool.

 

[Nicolasdec]

This just shows you how out of touch the music industry is with the real world. They complain about people downloading there songs for free, then they go and increase the prices on songs. DURING A RECESSION.

The movie industry has adapted quite well to the digital age. however the music industry carries on trying to fight it. And you know what I hope they all go bankrupt.

 

[BobtheTomato]

The record labels want to cut Apple down to size so they engage in this petty crap. This just makes me less inclined to buy music. It's past time that the record labels died.

 

[emulator]

So, how long before we don't even need record companies? I mean, it seems like it's easier than ever for a musician to record with their own money/equipment, and to release a single on the internet without any need for a larger company to handle all that promotion for you...

many already do that, nin//underworld just to name a few. only the crapfest singers, rappers and idols will stay with records companies; we'll see if the sheep will still buy that for no matter how much.

edit: with records copanies I mean the real corps, not the smaller, better records companies like audio therapy, soma, hope and a lot more ready to sell their releases on their own site or juno/beatport.

 

[dernhelm]

ZOMGZZZ!!!$@ You should sue something!!

Ha.

Doesn't hurt me any, just seems like collusion on the part of the record labels.

Look at it this way, if Microsoft got mad at Michael Dell, and decided that he had to pay more for windows licenses than everyone else doesn't that smell like a problem? Or if Microsoft suddenly decided that all computer manufacturers that didn't offer the ability to configure your system to ship with Linux got a deal on Windows licenses that nobody else got? Wouldn't that be a problem? Oh yeah, I guess maybe it WAS...

 

[lkrupp]

Oh well, back to downloading music for free.

Thief. A common thief. You should be in jail.

 

[blybug]

I won't pay more than $0.99 for a single.

Sort of playing devil's advocate, but not really...

Back in the 70's and 80's, the last time single sales were booming, a 45rpm record cost somewhere between $1-$2. And for crappy sound quality that you could only play at home on a turntable. What's remarkable is 25 years later the price for a song is exactly the same, sounds better, and has exponentially increased convenience and portability. And can't get scratched.

What else can you buy for a buck today?

Of course you also got the "B" side back then, which more often than not was crap compared to the song you were really buying. I've always thought since iTunes started selling songs that they should bring this old-fashioned model to the iPod era and throw in a "B" side that virtually nobody would buy otherwise anyhow, for the price of the single. Wouldn't cost them anything but bandwidth, and might convince a few more people to go back and buy the whole album.

 

[lkrupp]

You guys have to understand 30% is a HUGE increase in business terms.

It will be interesting to see how it works out for the music industry. I guess Im going back to torrents. BTW **** Metallica.

Yet another common thief in our midst. Why not just walk into a Walmart and shoplift a CD? You would have the physical media for backup and could make copies to distribute to your friends. Anonymously downloading music is so cowardly, like a pervert peeping into your neighbor's window. Be a man for god's sake. Or is cowardice your main personality trait?

 

[B2k1977]

It's not pure greed, not in any sense of the word. It's simple supply and demand. No one is twisitng anyone's arm to buy any music from anywhere. If anything it's the customer's greed and addiction to listening to music. You don't have a right to buy anything at some abitrary price you decide is reasonable. The producer sets the price and you decide if you're willing to pay it. Don't like the price? Don't buy the product.

So I guess you want the Obama adminstration to set the price of music downloads, huh. Yeah, that's the ticket, price regulation set by the government.

The only thing I want the Obama Administration to do is resign. I didn't vote for any of those clowns in the whitehouse. Sorry for not being P.C. but I just don't care when it comes to politics.

I don't see how you can cite supply and demand. It's an electronically downloaded product. Theoretically it should be unlimited supply.

I understand that they have to compensate for loss of CD sales (I can't remember the last time I bought a CD) I think like anything else, the price will go up but it is NOT a matter of supply and demand.

 

[compuguy1088]

The recording industry never learns. Let them keep jacking up prices, and piracy will continue to sky rocket. Napster became popular because people wanted a fast and convenient alternative to CDs (in particularly CD singles), not because there was some mass conspiracy by music lovers to not pay for anything.

I think the Amazon hysteria on this thread is a little funny. I highly doubt the record labels are giving Amazon that much of a better deal than Apple. It's just that Amazon, which owns a plethora of other online stores, is willing to sell hit songs as loss leaders for other products. This would similar to their gold box deals and other competitive pricing.

As an Amazon frequenter, it's dead easy to go between their different services. Amazon wants to be your go to company for everything (books, movies, tv shows, electronics, ebooks, online music, CDs, groceries, online storage, etc). What don't they sell anymore?

Amazon essentially wants to be the online version of Wal-Mart.

I can think of one thing they don't sell......refrigerated grocery items, sheet music, musical instruments....

 

[Porco]

I'm sticking with CDs for most of my music purchases for the forseeable future. Downloads were already overpriced. It's a shame the music industry still doesn't seem to get it.

However I don't think Apple shouldn't care too much. To paraphrase a nefarious fictional character, I think everything is proceeding as they have foreseen. iTunes is still top dog, is now DRM free, ad in order to try and wrestle some control back (control they only lost in the first place because Apple were the only ones to get it right) they're continuing to do Apple's work for them, stoking up competition that will squeeze more profits per track but lose them sales, until artists will, I think, eventually revolt and the likes of Amazon and Apple become the 'labels' themselves. I think it's a matter of time. Look at the App store - it must terrify the music industry, because that is a model where the creators get 70%! Extend that model to unsigned musical artists and the need for record contracts in anything like the way they exist now kind of disappears...

Meanwhile, Apple keeps selling iPods and iPhones that play files bought from anywhere, thanks to the end of DRM on music.

 

[compuguy1088]

So many options so many sites and if i can just recomend beak the trend..

Two sites i recommend and there free
http://www.icompositions.com
http://www.macjams.com/

iCompositions FTW!

http://www.icompositions.com/artists/compuguy1088

 

[sushi]

I can't imagine the music labels would give up this system that they fought so hard (with Apple, at least) to get... but the NUMBER of songs that get the higher price in future will be affected by sales. So count me in on your 1.29 boycott

Glad to see folks thinking alike.

The more the better chance of sending a message to the industry.

The RIAA are/is a bunch of morons. "We'll sue our customers, and if that doesn't make 'em buy more music, then we'll raise the price. Brilliant!"

This does make one wonder.

While many other stores are giving discounts to keep the business coming in the recording industry is trying to increase costs which more than likely will reduce sales.

yeah and it makes me feel better about sticking to limewire. it's just so much more convenient. artists should make their money at concerts performing for people. i'm not paying to listen to a recording of their music. i can do that for free on the radio too, would people get as mad if i record it off the radio like people did in the 90's? somehow no one cared back then, today we have a bunch of "saints" who think they're the internet morals police

You know that it is individuals such as yourself that are messing it up for the rest of us. By stealing your music through P2P networks like Limewire, you are hurting the industry. They will make up for losses by increasing costs to paying customers.

As for your recording from the airwaves comment, please do a little research before posting such comments. If you did, you would realize that there is a huge difference.

See my sig.

Good luck with that.

I bought a CD on my iPhone at work just last night. It felt good to and made me happy. Try it sine time.

iTMS makes things so easy doesn't it?

Buy a song or CD is just a few clicks away regardless if you are on your computer or iPhone/iPod touch. Sweet.

 

[sishaw]

Question: when does this cross the line to price fixing?

When all the record companies get together and decide that all retailers must charge a specific price for each song. That is not the case at all--for example, as many people have pointed out, Amazon is charging different prices for many songs. They are using their advantage as a "long tail" retailer, they don't have to make as much profit on each item sold. So the prices are clearly not being fixed.

 

[sishaw]

You guys have to understand 30% is a HUGE increase in business terms.

It will be interesting to see how it works out for the music industry. I guess Im going back to torrents. BTW **** Metallica.

Wow, the candy machine down the hall where I work just raised their prices from .80 for a Snickers bar to $1.00 (really, not making this up). Guess I'm gonna crack the glass front and just take the bars when I want them.

 

[leonstafford]

These guys are already making a killing and the stuff isn't really that good. I'm going by the used CD/DVD store and buy music and movies at a fraction of the cost. I can buy a CD for $4.99 or less, a DVD for $7.99 or less, and a Blu-Ray disc for around $10.99...

Good point!

When I was younger and dumber I bought CDs new, then tried the monthly CD club thing, then as downloads increased, I occasionly went to a 2nd hand store and picked up stuff as it was cheap and good.

A .99c or more download isn't going to be (isn't allowed to be!) sold 2nd hand for 20% if the cost.... so what happens to us bottom feeders when we have no more "SUPPLY"??

(spoiler) WE MAKE OUR OWN!!