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Exchange Rates Play With Online Music Prices
EconolineCrush writes "Those looking to purchase songs online may find that the price of music downloads varies quite a bit from country to country. Most vendors seem to be favoring 0.99/track pricing schemes, but $0.99CDN is worth quite a bit less than 0.99 British Pounds. When indexed to the US dollar, Canadians using Puretracks are getting a bargain with tracks costing only $0.76US, while UK residents using Coke's new music store are getting ripped off at nearly $1.80US per song. iTunes and Wal Mart sit between the two, with tracks selling for $0.99 and $0.88, respectively."
Allofmp3.com, in Russia, at a penny a MB will get you a whole album for under a buck. And it's easier enough than filesharing to make paying worthwhile. (Legal, too, if you're the type to let laws decide your actions.) Why the hell would I pay 99 cents a song?
Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog
You cannot wash away blood with blood
The economist just added a Starbuck's tall latte index (a purchasing-power parity test) similar to their Big Mac Index. How long will it be until they add an "mp3 index"?
Both the tall latte index and the Big Mac index show that the Canadian dollar is undervalued compared to the US dollar (which means that we get things cheaper here!). Sweet.
Well you can download a tank of gas? You see all of these other examples work becouse the shipping costs out way any possible advantage of pricing. That is to say even if you save 3dollars a gallon buying in the US, shipping just one tank of gas cost you more then if you just pay the overcharge in europe. Also most of the overcharge is due to taxes, so if you import the customs agent is going to ask for his tax money. Now the net doesnt really have customes agent. So people in .UK could just buy albums in The US site and download the content directly paying the US price. Cost of distribution is nill on the net, while in meat space it keeps you in line. Similarly we in the US should just use the .CA music as its cheaper then ours. I think the true solution is a single global monetary system. All of these exchange rates just play on old world devliery systems, in a information age they are a relic. To combat this system lets just setup a company in what ever country has the cheapest music, use it to proxy all purchases no matter where the end user lives, thus everyone gets the same lowest price. Sooner (rather then later) the content providers and merchants will figure out they need a single price for everyone in this single information system.
how do they handle CDs with lots of "filler" (like 30 s) or even short tracks (~2.5 m)? The new Best of Guided By Voices CD is one cd with 33 tracks on it. Does that mean its $33 purchased electronically?
How about making copyright reform a central issue in the upcoming election?
Very likely most politicians don't know if the DMCA is fit to eat, feel Disney and the RIAA are important campaign contributors whose requests should be given priority, and music downloaders are simple thieves who deserve every bit of punishment they get.
You can change that. But it's going to take some work. There are enough people sharing music in America - more people than voted for George Bush - that if you get off your collective asses and get politically active, you can get laws passed to get the RIAA off your back.
In Change the Law, I explain that copyright is not a Constitutional right, like free speech. Instead copyright is allowed (but not required) to serve a useful purpose, a purpose which I feel has long since outlived its usefulness.
I suggest steps you can take to bring about copyright reform, ranging from speaking out to practicing civil disobedience.
One thing I'd like you all to do today is to write your elected representatives to ask their opinion of the current state of copyright law given its widespread abuse by organizations like the RIAA and MPAA, and to urge them to work towards copyright reform. Let them know your vote will depend on a positive response.
When you're done writing that letter, write to the other candidates for each office in the upcoming elections, to ask them the same question.
Sixty million American peer-to-peer file traders have the potential to raise a lot of Hell with the politicians. I want every candidate to be peppered with questions about copyright reform at every campaign stop and in every press interview. I want the repeal of the DMCA to be discussed in the Presidential debates.
People marched in protest when Dmitry Sklyarov was arrested. Dmitry is free now - but the law under which he was jailed is still on the books.
If you agree with me that something needs to be done about copyright, I need your help.
Thank you for your attention.
Request your free CD of my piano music.