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."

Comments

How funny

[ObviousGuy]

Why pay at all?

Seems to reflect CD pricing bias

[Humba]

A quick check shows this may not be out-of-line with current CD pricing around the world.

While CD-prices differ widely in comparison - at 1996 exchange rates, a normal CD cost

below US-$ 16.00 in the USA

US-$ 14.00 in Canada

US-$ 25.00 in Japan

US-$ 23.00 in Germany

US-$ 24.00 in the UK

Source

Note, the data is indeed eight years old. (jeeze, was 1996 that long ago?) Pardon the US bias, but this still seems to reflect what I understand are current retail prices.

--H

Re:Seems to reflect CD pricing bias

[grqb]

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.

Re:Seems to reflect CD pricing bias

[Panties McPants]

Add to that US-$ 22.50 here in Australia.

While it may seem to someone in America that the UK may be overpaying for their online music, it probably doesn't seem that way to someone actually in the UK.

Take games for example. Here in Aus, an average new-release game sells for ~$99, give or take a few dollars due to the store policy or whatnot. Yet there's no outcry "OMG Australians pay $75US per game RIPOFF!!!11!!".
I think we pay this much as a reflection on the average earnings of an Australian, and by our standards, $100 isn't an exhorbitant amount for a single game.

I'm sure the 99 pence songs are seen the same way in the UK. Expensive when compared to the American dollar, but reasonably good value to an average Brit.

Hosting charges!

[Sanga]

Probably the companies spend more/less money in hosting website in those countries ... and are passing on the cost/savings to the customer.

Oh wait ... we are talking about the music industry

Region coding

[iminplaya]

I guess maybe we'll have put region codes on music, so we can maintain price discrimination, like on DVD's.

so...

[pvt_medic]

go to canada download the songs on a service that allows you to share the files or burn them to a cd and then head back to the US.

Custom Officer: and what is the purpose of your visit today sir.
Me: to download music

Great, thanks, the secret's out now!

[bc90021]

Since now the Canadians are going to realise they should charge more, my tactic of shopping at eBay.ca won't work anymore! Gone are the days I could bid 7/8 of what I'd pay in the US and win!

Thanks a lot Slashdot!! ;)

allofmp3.com

[Mr. Slippery]

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?

Re:How is this news?

[sPaKr]

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.