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Music Labels May Seek Higher Download Prices

punxking writes "Some of the big music labels are now clamoring to raise prices for digital music downloads. From the article: 'Music industry executives said introductory wholesale prices for digital tracks had been set low to stimulate demand for online music sales but the success of Apple's music store had prompted concern that they may now be too low.'" Relatedly, the BBC is reporting that iTunes is under investigation in Britain for charging disparities between the UK and the European continent.

24 of 446 comments (clear)

  1. Slashdot raising subscription rates! by garcia · · Score: 4, Funny

    Slashdot and OSDN are clamoring to raise subscription rates!

    In a move that the OSDN bean-counters believe will give Slashdot and OSDN more cash on hand, Slashdot.org is announcing that they are raising subscription rates to $5.25 for 1000 pages of ad-free* viewing.

    More and more frequently Slashdot has been giving its readers the opportunity to read day old news AGAIN! The editors of the site claim that this is part of their overall marketing plan:

    Rob Malda (aka CmdrTaco) was quoted in the NYT (vampire sucking required) as saying, "well we give you TWICE the news in two days so we thought it was only right that our subscribers pay a little bit extra!"

    Zonk was quoted as saying, "well we give you TWICE the news in two days so we thought it was only right that our subscribers pay a little bit extra!"

    While Slashdot does have an e-mail link on their site to allow Slashdot subscribers to report these duplicates to the "Editor on Duty" the editors have admitted in secret taped conversations (on IRC) that the email address is bunk and goes to /dev/null... "How are we to justify raising subscription rates if the readers weren't getting the same old shit twice?"

    * - ad-free only refers to banner ads, not posts to the main page that are made to appear as "stories" when they are in all actuality advertisements (i.e. iPods)

  2. higher prices again? by justforaday · · Score: 4, Funny

    I thought they were just talking about doing this a few days ago...Greedy bastards...sheesh!

    --
    I'll turn into a supernova and burn up everything. Well I'll turn into a black little hole and you'll turn into string.
  3. Re:Dupe City by Skye16 · · Score: 3, Funny

    I concur. I think I need a replacement for Slashdot.

  4. Ha! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Good luck pushing Wal*Mart. They've never bowed to a supplier. If they want to sell digital music at 25-cents a track, the music industry can just take it in the rear.

    1. Re:Ha! by e2d2 · · Score: 3, Funny

      Yeah but Wal*Mart would rather get their music from China anyway.

  5. dupe dupe dupe by aendeuryu · · Score: 3, Funny

    dupe dupe dupe
    they duped the URL (dupe dupe)
    they duped the URL (dupe dupe)
    they duped the URL...

    As I walk though
    Slashdot's world
    Nothing can stop
    These dupes of URLs...

    etc. etc.

  6. Stealing music is bad, mkay? by Thud457 · · Score: 5, Funny
    Higher prices than "your immortal soul"?!!!! That's ridiculous!


    Oh, wait, there's legitmate places to download music online from?!!!


    Primitive peoples often think that you're stealing their soul when you photograph them.

    I make no guarentee of this post's relevancy to anything.

    --

    the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

  7. Aw hell... dupe reply by the_skywise · · Score: 3, Funny

    Well they have to raise prices!

    Because the cost of manufacturing has...

    Er... Because they have to hire more employees to handle the purchasing load...

    Er... Because the Britney Spears needs a new swimming pool for her poodle... yeah!

    Isn't it time we just declare the RIAA a monopoly and start regulating it because, obviously, there is no competition.

    (I'm reminded of that montage scene in Real Genius where more and more people don't show up to class and instead have tape recorders to record the lecture... eventually the professor stops coming to class and just has a tape to play to the tape recorders...)

  8. Re:Dupe City by dcarey · · Score: 4, Funny

    Shoot, as long as slashdot is the de facto source for redundancy, how about we make a poll for the subject:

    Slashdot poll: Which article is better?
    1)iTunes downloads prices increasing article referenced here (yesterday)
    2)iTunes downloads prices increasing article referenced here (today's)
    3)the iTunes article dupe we'll see tomorrow.
    4) the iTunes article for when the prices actually change
    5) dupe slashdot article for #4
    6) dupe slashdot article for #4 AND #5.

    Come on guys. I know you can get on the same page.

    --

    -- (Score:i , Imaginary)

  9. Re:Costs? by justforaday · · Score: 5, Funny

    One of the bennes is that he sees stories before they are actually published for the unwashed masses.

    I'm not a subscriber and I saw this story before it was posted... : p

    --
    I'll turn into a supernova and burn up everything. Well I'll turn into a black little hole and you'll turn into string.
  10. Applesoft? by Renaissance+2K · · Score: 5, Funny

    The music industry loses all credibility the moment it says "Apple may become too powerful."

    Oh, so now Apple is trying to take over the world?

    What next? The Salvation Army?

  11. Re:Dupe City by tomhudson · · Score: 4, Funny
    Of course it's a dupe - this gives us all a second chance to post links to all sorts of torrent sites [tt] that still work ... just in case you missed them yesterday, or last week, or in January.

    And the people who really want to karma whore can cut-n-paste the highest-rated articles from yesterday (or the lowest-rated if you're into trolling).

    Maybe someone should just write a script that automatically posts ...

    THIS IS A DUPE
    This dupe story has been brought to you by the slushdot editors.
    Our motto: We don't do no stinking editing. This is the NEW new economy.
    If you complain too much, we'll bring back Michael Sims ... beatches!
    ... at the top of every story - it would be right most of the time.
  12. Well, that explains a LOT! by Anita+Coney · · Score: 3, Funny

    The music industry thinks that because iTunes is a success, the prices must be too low. That explains why CDs sales are down. Every time people start buying them, the music industry raises prices. The music industry seems afraid of success, every time it gets close, they squash it.

    --
    If someone says he and his monkey have nothing to hide, they almost certainly do.
  13. Re:Dupe City by sulli · · Score: 4, Funny

    Let me recommend Slashdot

    --

    sulli
    RTFJ.
  14. Re:Pretty soon... by Reignking · · Score: 3, Funny

    If that were to happen, would we be able to slashdot slashdot?

    --
    One man's Funny is another man's Offtopic.
  15. Who's your daddy by fulldecent · · Score: 4, Funny

    I kind of like Walmart's discussions with the media industry a little better:

    Walmart: I think it's time you started selling me CD's for under $10
    Labels: That's some bullshit
    Walmart: I retail 4% of the GNP, if I stop selling CD's, you die
    Label: Ulth... fine, but-
    Walmart: But what?
    Label: ...um but nothing
    --

    -- I was raised on the command line, bitch

  16. Re:In other words by Tongo · · Score: 5, Funny

    I don't come here for variety, I come here for redundancy.

  17. Now, let's be fair by Safety+Cap · · Score: 4, Funny

    I would point you to Slashdot Editor Training, where all Editors learn how to avoid dupes, perform thorough spell- and fact-checking, and (best of all) write well-crafted, bug-free code.

    --
    Yeah, right.
  18. Re:Costs? by QMO · · Score: 5, Funny

    The real reason they want to charge more is that it will increase the market value of piracy, thus the marketing value of piracy, but not substantially increase what they really lose from piracy.

    Example of their current arithmetic:
    1,000,000 songs at $0.50 each = $500,000

    but, if they charge more it suddnly becomes:
    1,000,000 songs at $0.75 each = $750,000

    Oh, no! Piracy has just gone up 50%!

    Just a thought.

    --
    Exam 4/C again. Maybe I'll do better this time.
  19. Redundant answer by squiggleslash · · Score: 3, Funny
    (Does it matter this is a dupe? I mean, you already know what the comments are going to be:)

    THis is just more evidence that the MPAA and Micro$oft are just out to screw the consumer vis they want us to pay more and more for their so-called "music" which is all Bri[tt]ney $Pears rubbish which they play over and over again on their network of Clearchannel radio stations thanks to payola IE LEGALIZED BRIBERY forcing everyone to download the music from the Internet using services like Kazaa and Morpheus anyway, whereas if the music industry eg the MPAA would just give music away on DRM-less MP3s at 384kbps (the MINIMUM I will accept, 314kbps AAC is TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE, you can really hear the difference on top-end Sony equipment) and if they'd make the music actually WORTH LISTENING TO then they would be "getting it" and working in the new economy not the old economy. This is why personally I download all my music from dodgymp3s.ru where you pay a penny a megabyte which is much fairer because the money goes to the artists according to the website, well the bit left over after taxes and expenses and protection racket fees, rather than to the money grabbing record industry execs who spend all their money on cocaine and DVDs.

    Are you all with me? Yeah! Fight the fat cat record execs!

    --
    You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
  20. Is the Slashdot Shuffle Playing Favorites? by saddino · · Score: 3, Funny

    saddino writes "Steven Levy at Newsweek is reporting that Slashdot seems to favor certain stories for dupes. Is Slashdot receiving kickbacks to promote certain companies? Slashdot denies it, of course, and Levy had the good sense to ask a mathematician and a cryptographer who explained it's probably just humans finding patterns where there are none."

  21. Re:In other words by AtariAmarok · · Score: 5, Funny
    "I don't come here for variety, I come here for redundancy."

    I don't come here for variety, I come here for redundancy.

    --
    Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
  22. Re:Dupe City by maxwell+demon · · Score: 4, Funny

    I've just discovered that there's a site which looks just like slashdot at http://nodupes.slashdot.org. Given the name, maybe they don't have dupes.

    --
    The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
  23. Look at it this way by serutan · · Score: 4, Funny

    Think of the dupe as a remake of the original "classic" post.