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By Chris Scott Barr

It’s hard to disagree with anyone that says iTunes forever changed the way we buy music. Their simple $.99 per song pricing made it cheaper than ever to buy just the songs you like. It didn’t matter if the song was brand new or three decades old, $.99 was the price. Unfortunately starting next month that will no longer be the case. If you’re looking for a current chart-topper, expect to pay a premium.

According to sources, Apple has begun telling record labels that on April 7 they will introduce the new $1.29 premium price for popular tracks. This has been discussed off and on for some time, but this is the first we’ve heard of a date for the new pricing.

I won’t pretend to know all of the inner-workings of the record industry, but I’m pretty sure their business model is to bend potential customers over a table and attempt to extract cash rectally. I mean, it’s not like we’re going through a recession or anything. Oh well, looks like we’re just going to have to listen to music the old-fashioned way. Speaking of which, I believe we can look forward to a ruling on the big RIAA vs ThePirateBay case just 10 days after this new pricing scheme goes public.

VIA [ GearFuse ]

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5 COMMENTS

  1. torrents, rapidshare or even grooveshark
    I will never NEVER pay for an mp3… even when I'm an apple boy the concept of apple inc its changing for bad…

  2. Are Apple trying to encourage customers to download torrents? It's bad enough that the UK site seems to ignore currency conversion rates … when it was $1.90 to the £ they were charging $0.99 and £0.79 per track.

    Doesn't seem a good idea when Amazon have started selling music tracks for less.

  3. Pay-Per-Performance past on to the customer based on demand this very interesting model I can see how it works with video game systems or trendy toys basic supply and demand (cabbage patch, tickle me elmo, Wii Fit, Beenie Babies, etc) when a rare toy like Bakugans comes out with new toy the demand might be greater then the supply so the price might go from $4.95 to $20.00 at none major retailers to take advantage of the lack of supply. Considering a downloadable music track has a unlimited supply that makes this a very interesting marketing play to watch.

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