iPod I don't understand...

[hellomoto4]

I live in Australia.

Here, the cheapest app to buy (not inc. free apps) is $1.19; the cheapest song to buy (not inc. free songs) is $1.69.

However, both of these items are priced at $0.99 in the US store.

I don't understand how Apple can charge an extra $0.50 because it's a song.

Discuss

 

[Tallest Skil]

It has to do with your exchange rate and laws.

 

[r.j.s]

Conversion rates ... Australian taxes Apple pays (then passes on to you) ... Australian record companies demand it ... They feel like charging more in Australia?

 

[mkrishnan]

I don't understand how Apple can charge an extra $0.50 because it's a song.

It also has everything to do with what Apple was able to negotiate with the Australian arms of record companies. As Apple has been the major proponent of uniform pricing of digital sales, I would point the finger at the record labels first. It's a digital copy of a music recording -- it doesn't have any real, fundamental, logical value. Or rather, that value is extremely low and represents a tiny fraction of its actual fair market value.

What is the price range for a CD album in an Australian CD store?

 

[Purpdust]

Sounds like you need to open an US Account

 

[Ivan P]

What is the price range for a CD album in an Australian CD store?

They tend to be an average of around $30, some stores sell them for around $20 (or if they're really crappy/bad sellers, $10/$15). In comparison, $16.99 for an album on iTunes is a rather good deal.

Sounds like you need to open an US Account

That'd be difficult as to buy anything you'd need a billing address inside the US, a US credit card or, at the very least, a US iTunes gift card (the gift cards in Australia only work in the Australian iTunes Store, and I imagine the same restrictions apply in other regions too).

 

[themoonisdown09]

They tend to be an average of around $30, some stores sell them for around $20 (or if they're really crappy/bad sellers, $10/$15). In comparison, $16.99 for an album on iTunes is a rather good deal.

That's expensive. I love buying cds when they first come out for $7.99 at Target. Of course, it's been a couple years since I bought a cd there.

 

[mkrishnan]

They tend to be an average of around $30, some stores sell them for around $20 (or if they're really crappy/bad sellers, $10/$15). In comparison, $16.99 for an album on iTunes is a rather good deal.

Right... I think that also encapsulates the difference. Single disc CD albums in the US cost between $13-19, outside of the extreme sales like exampled above, with the lower prices at stores like Walmart and Target and the higher prices at stores that are more media oriented (Best Buy, sometimes, Borders, Barnes & Nobles). So ...

If we pay $9.99 for an online album that would cost $13-19 in the store, I think that's actually fairly comparable to the cost difference between your physical media and your iTunes purchases.

Again, this is all contract law and contract negotiations. There is no fixed pricing -- there's only what Apple can get the record labels in AUS to agree with....

 

[Purpdust]

If you do decide to set up a USA account, there are ways to buy the Gift cars (EBay) and make sure you pick a state for your address without sales tax From what I understand you only need a Valid Zip Code with a Valid City. the rest can be fake.

 

[mkrishnan]

Please be aware that if you're not a US resident, and you use methods to controvert the Apple system in order to establish yourself as one, so that you can buy music from the US Apple Store, you still don't have any legal rights to the software, as it is being licensed by a US Entity to a US resident, which you are not. So if you do this, you really don't legally have any more rights to the music than you would have were you to pirate it.