Rate hikes on the horizon!
17 Nov 2005 
around lunchtime 
Matt Winckler
Music publishers, unhappy with their profits so far, are trying to pressure Apple into jacking up the prices on some of their $0.99 songs. So far Apple has maintained a consistent $0.99 price across the board for any song. Steve Jobs says they intend to continue doing so. Naturally, this course of action is unfair to the artists, the record companies, the consumer, the mayor of Dish, Texas, and your neighbor’s dog.
Of course! Now that the record industry has clarified that tidbit for me, I’m totally on board. It’s not fair! In fact, I bet nobody is treated fairly by $0.99 songs! Some songs should be $0.99, but others should be more, because otherwise it will not be fair to the consumer! It is grossly unfair that Apple dares to price everything at the same level. After all, some of those songs probably cost more than a few pennies to produce! Furthermore, Apple Computer’s iTunes team is probably staffed by Scientologists!
I might not have so much of a problem with this were they talking about lowering the price on some songs even if raising it on others. But in another article on Red Herring, Warner Music Group CEO Edgar Bronfman was quoted as saying “Some songs should be $0.99 and some songs should be more.” Indeed. Keep a fixed price for the crap, and raise the price on the decent songs.
That article was supposed to be Bronfman’s response to Jobs calling the music industry “greedy” for requesting a price hike on songs. Interestingly, Bronfman never really denied that - he just gave more rhetoric about why Apple should succumb to their greed. The article also pointed out that the music industry was squirming around trying to get out of low-priced contracts it gave to XM radio in an effort to ensure the format succeeded. Now that it is, the music industry thinks it’s time to take those contracts in front of an arbitrator. (Who, if he has a lick of sense, will tell them: “Stop wasting everybody’s time and live up to the agreements you signed.”)
Fortunately, Jobs is not budging an inch yet on this issue. He claims (rightly, I think) that increasing the price will just increase the industry’s problem with piracy. Irregardless, Bronfman insists that we’ll see iTunes adopt flexible pricing within 12 months. I hope Jobs sticks it to him and keeps the current model despite pressure.
Personally, if many songs on iTunes went above $0.99, I’d just go find a different music service. There are already many out there where you can get music for under $0.99, but I pay the premium because I like iTunes’ simple, elegant, integrated interface. More than a dollar a song, though, and I’ll be willing to go to the trouble to buy it elsewhere, strip off the DRM, and import it into iTunes.