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ITunes: Now up to 30% more expensive!
In January 2009, the wonderful people at Apple announced that they would be making the ITunes service DRM (Digital Rights Management) free, thus allowing its customers to use and transfer files without any 'major' restrictions. However, this particular press release was coupled with the announcement that popular tracks within the site would be made available at an increased price level.
Yesterday, this announcement came to fruition. Single songs within ITunes now range in price between $0.69 and $1.29 for top tracks. This is an increase of 30% on those tracks positioned at the high end of the scale. As such, 8 of the current top 15 songs in the ITunes library fall within this bracket, with current household favourites such as 'Lady Gaga' and 'Flo Rida' being punted for $1.29. The remaining 7 tracks within the top 15 are being sold for $0.99, meaning that Apple can effectively alter consumer behaviour patterns and influence buying decisions for specific artists based on price.
So its the same old story really, big company gives to the masses with one hand and simply takes away with the other. Whilst the announcement of DRM free tunes comes as a welcome and open approach to music distribution in the 21st century, the implementation of a 30% price hike is certainly capable of leaving a bitter after-taste. Several 'rivals' are using this increase in price as an opportunity to promote cheaper alternatives and stimulate brand awareness, as 'droves' of users apprehensively search for alternatives to ITunes.
This is in fact a massive presumption on my part, as the effect of this increase in price on customer behaviour is still largely unknown. Few music fans have even bothered to experience 'rival' sites such as Amazon and eMusic and in many cases, customers don't even flinch at a $0.30 increase. However, over time, these numbers do add up, and an extra 100 tracks will burn a $30 hole in the pocket.
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