Billboard: iTunes prices up, sales down

I'm an 'album' kinda person, but the $1.29 would make me think twice before I impulse buy something.

Example, I saw some Youtube video and liked the background music, so I go find it on iTunes. at $1.29 I'll probably skip it. Same thing has happened and kept me from drinking cokes anymore. $1.10 for a bottle is a PITA, at $1 it was a nice round number, $1.10 means I either cary a shit load of change back, or, most often, I don't drink any.

The key metric is total revenue per item. AFAIK, that hasn't been reported yet. The logic is simple: I'd rather sell one apple at $1 million than sell 100 apples at $1 thousand.

I believe that this is the metric that recording industry execs would respond to IF it could be calculated. This would require releasing two comparably popular songs at the same time, one at $0.99 and the other at $1.29. The one with the greater total revenue over the same time period would either support or refute the assertion that "higher prices mean lower total revenue."

This is a very hard nut to crack.

sigh. it used to be that you bought a song because you liked it, regardless of how much it cost.

Is anybody seeing if p2p is up on those artists?

i knew it ...was havin a gut feeling....

harshit
http://registryplayer.blogspot.com

Personally felt that .99 was a bit high, but now 1.29 is defiantly over priced. The industry that pushed for this is the one that will pay in the end as users move back to getting songs for free. I don't doubt that Amazon will either pass the cost along or to eat it to be a thorn in the side of Apple.

I don't fault Apple in this case, but the finger is pointed right at the Musicians. Yes the Musicians that allow their managers and agents to use them like a tool. If they were to stand up and take some control over their industry we might see better music and pricing that compensates them and the witters and not some middle man that does virtually nothing.

I'm thankful that my music tastes are not the $1.29 type in the first place.

I agree. I'll continue buying songs .99 and below.

Another thought that is maybe stupid but I'll throw it out. Since some people base their buying off of chart position as these 1.29 songs slide down will there be a sort of death spiral effect?

Honestly I doubt I buy much top 100 music, but for those that do isn't chart position their biggest deciding factor? Oh that song is top-10 so I like it cuz I heard it on that station I listen to.

Like I said, proabably a stupid observation (now that I've typed it out it seems more stupid).

Market response like economics tells us it would - if the studio business folks didn't realize this, they need to be removed from the shareholders...

I, personally, will do my little part to protest the price increase. I will still buy anything that's 99 cents, but anything that's $1.29, I simply won't purchase.

The price I prefer to pay now after this increase is $0.0
Stupid record companies will suffer. As it was 99c was too high, 50c was more reasonable, but I was willing to pay 99c for the convenience. Stupid record companies will find out the hard way that it will be impossible to shut down rapidshare et al.