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Apple iTunes to End Flat Fee Pricing?
MdntToker writes "According the Forbes, EMI has an understanding with Apple that flat fee pricing will end within the next 12 months, and more popular songs will be priced higher than 99c, while lesser known acts will be priced lower than 99c." From the article: "Label executives have made multiple arguments for flexible pricing. They argue, for instance, that almost all retail businesses have different price points for different products. But they are particularly interested in boosting their revenue from digital music sales, which aided by the sale of mobile phone ringtones, are increasing but not quickly enough to replace the continuing drops in compact disc sales. EMI said today that digital sales, made up 4.9% of the company's sales in the last six months, up from 2.1% a year ago." We've previously reported on this story.
... I go back to snail mailing money to the artists and downloading the mp3. Shrug.
Shadus
According to Slashdot, popular music sucks. As a result, non-sucky music will cost less than it does today. This is good.
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Yeah, and I'm sure their opinion is 100% pure and unbisased. This could very well be a ploy to pressure Apple into complying. Also, even if it is true, Steve Jobs will send them packing for pre-announcing it.
Help save the critically endangered Blue Iguana
As part of the deal, Sony has agreed to include malicious code that will open gaping security holes on your devices with the higher-priced downloads.
i got ball this is my adress 108 20 37 av corona come n do it iam give u the sidekick so I can hit you wit it
Kind of like an adjustable rate mortgage.
And do I make that check out to "50 Cent" or "Fiddy Cent"?
The law of supply and demand in action, I guess... It would be a shame for them to run out of the more popular songs, so they price them higher to keep the demand lower, right?
I was talking with a guy that works at the iTMS today and he said that there are no plans for that, and Steve's still strongly opposed.
You must be new here? This is slashdot, after all.
I used up all my sick days, so I'm calling in dead.
Yeah, this could be a "Let's put the word out that we think Jobs is going to cave because the arguments all make sense then he'll be relatively compelled to save face." Jobs could as easily say, "Dude! We had this discussion. Remember when I said, 'Go pound sand up your ass?' we were talking about this!"
The crap songs I don't buy will subsidize my purchases! JOBS IS GENIUS
function GetPrice($song) //first time? //increment price by one penny per song d/l in past hour. capped.
{
$total_downloads = GetTotalDownloads($song);
if ($total_downloads == 0)
{
$price = 1.00;
return $price;
}
$price = 0.10;
$num_downloads = GetNumDownloadsInPastHour($song);
$price += $num_downloads;
if ($price > $k_CAP) {$price = $k_CAP;}
return $price;
}
No, but I'm not convinced they get any money of the money from the sale of a CD, either.