I absolutely love the television ads Comcast has been running during the ATT take-over period. The basic message is "Switch from satellite to Comcast cable, because we're local". Never to they mention customer support levels or superior product - only that they're local. Has me in hysertics every time I see it.
Unfortunately I'm a Comcast cable modem subscriber (it's the only high-speed option in my area), but I refuse to give up my DirecTv subscription even if it is costing me more per month than Comcast cable would. When I have a service issue with DirecTv they fix it on the spot. If there is a hardware problem *I* fix it - because it's my hardware. When you call Comcast/ATT support (when you can actually get through) they simply bounce you from one department to another hoping you'll give up and go away - after you've paid your monthly bill in full that is.
If the statement is true that Apple must give up $.65 for every $.99 sale, as stated in an earlier post, it would not be practical for them to lower the price. That's fine.
However, if Apple includes music from independent artists with no preexisting ties to the music industry they could easily lower the price per song from these artists to $.40-.50, assuming they are currently making a profit on the $.34 above licensing fees on 'popular' artists.
The issue I have with $.99 per song is that it is in most cases above the threshold of value to me. If, for instance, I would like to purchase all 12 tracks from an artist's album I would be required to pay Apple $12. However, I could most likely find the CD on Amazon marketplace or Half.com for $5-6. What is my incentive to purchase these tracks from Apple, considering the alternative of having the CD and the ability to convert the tracks into the format of my choice for half the price?
Granted, most people won't purchase all tracks from a CD using this service, but my point is that there isn't enough added value (for me personally) at this point to justify the price.
I'm not complaining about the price, only stating that I expect to get a certain amount of value for my money. Does that make me cheap? Maybe, but I can live with that.
If Apple were to go one step further and provide free genre-based streamed music channels they could easily mix in independent artists. The artists gain free exposure to a potentially huge market, and Apple would increase sales in areas that would usually be low. It's very tedious and time consuming to wade through pages of free samples attempting to find tracks you like. Having them streamed with some easy method of selecting 'favorites' would be an enormous benefit to the process. Personally I have purchased several CDs based on songs I've heard via Shoutcast streams, and would consider using Apple's service if this type of free sampling mechanism were available -- provided they release Win software in a reasonable amount of time, and work on lowering that $.99 price where practical..
But the sad fact of the matter is that Comcast is looking to purchase AT&T's cable business. AT&T has also announced that they will be making the cable modem speeds on their network 'uniform'. Which, for previous MediaOne customers like myself, is a raw deal beacuse my upstream will drop for 384kbps to 256kbps. AT&T to make broadband speed uniform
It won't really affect me as I don't host a lot of upstream traffic, but I'm still paying the same price. Now I will also be lucky enough to chip in an extra $7/month because I purchased my own modem? And to top it all of AT&T has hinted at an upcoming tiered pricing structure. Let me guess, the prices will stay the same, but the speeds will drop to 1/2 or 1/4 what they currently are. Because, after all, what choice do the customers have? I'm sure I won't mind paying $80/month for the 'service' I have now. Maybe I'll get even luckier and they will start sniffing for NAT setups. Sure, here's another $150/month. I don't mind...
What's worse than the actual sporting event is having to wait for three or four has-been sports "stars" talk about the game/event that just ended. I was very close to canceling my DirecTV subscription because these morons spent 20 minutes spewing what amounted to "and did you see when that guy threw the ball and the other one caught it" before I could watch the Simpsons. When they're all off camera I'm sure they discuss "this one time at football camp"...
The ImagiNation Network (INN) was actually The Sierra Network (TSN) before ATT got ahold of it. I was very sad to see it go as the sentimental value was high for me and my wife -- we met in Larry Land.
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I absolutely love the television ads Comcast has been running during the ATT take-over period. The basic message is "Switch from satellite to Comcast cable, because we're local". Never to they mention customer support levels or superior product - only that they're local. Has me in hysertics every time I see it.
Unfortunately I'm a Comcast cable modem subscriber (it's the only high-speed option in my area), but I refuse to give up my DirecTv subscription even if it is costing me more per month than Comcast cable would. When I have a service issue with DirecTv they fix it on the spot. If there is a hardware problem *I* fix it - because it's my hardware. When you call Comcast/ATT support (when you can actually get through) they simply bounce you from one department to another hoping you'll give up and go away - after you've paid your monthly bill in full that is.
If the statement is true that Apple must give up $.65 for every $.99 sale, as stated in an earlier post, it would not be practical for them to lower the price. That's fine.
However, if Apple includes music from independent artists with no preexisting ties to the music industry they could easily lower the price per song from these artists to $.40-.50, assuming they are currently making a profit on the $.34 above licensing fees on 'popular' artists.
The issue I have with $.99 per song is that it is in most cases above the threshold of value to me. If, for instance, I would like to purchase all 12 tracks from an artist's album I would be required to pay Apple $12. However, I could most likely find the CD on Amazon marketplace or Half.com for $5-6. What is my incentive to purchase these tracks from Apple, considering the alternative of having the CD and the ability to convert the tracks into the format of my choice for half the price?
Granted, most people won't purchase all tracks from a CD using this service, but my point is that there isn't enough added value (for me personally) at this point to justify the price.
I'm not complaining about the price, only stating that I expect to get a certain amount of value for my money. Does that make me cheap? Maybe, but I can live with that.
If Apple were to go one step further and provide free genre-based streamed music channels they could easily mix in independent artists. The artists gain free exposure to a potentially huge market, and Apple would increase sales in areas that would usually be low. It's very tedious and time consuming to wade through pages of free samples attempting to find tracks you like. Having them streamed with some easy method of selecting 'favorites' would be an enormous benefit to the process. Personally I have purchased several CDs based on songs I've heard via Shoutcast streams, and would consider using Apple's service if this type of free sampling mechanism were available -- provided they release Win software in a reasonable amount of time, and work on lowering that $.99 price where practical..
But the sad fact of the matter is that Comcast is looking to purchase AT&T's cable business. AT&T has also announced that they will be making the cable modem speeds on their network 'uniform'. Which, for previous MediaOne customers like myself, is a raw deal beacuse my upstream will drop for 384kbps to 256kbps. AT&T to make broadband speed uniform It won't really affect me as I don't host a lot of upstream traffic, but I'm still paying the same price. Now I will also be lucky enough to chip in an extra $7/month because I purchased my own modem? And to top it all of AT&T has hinted at an upcoming tiered pricing structure. Let me guess, the prices will stay the same, but the speeds will drop to 1/2 or 1/4 what they currently are. Because, after all, what choice do the customers have? I'm sure I won't mind paying $80/month for the 'service' I have now. Maybe I'll get even luckier and they will start sniffing for NAT setups. Sure, here's another $150/month. I don't mind...
What's worse than the actual sporting event is having to wait for three or four has-been sports "stars" talk about the game/event that just ended. I was very close to canceling my DirecTV subscription because these morons spent 20 minutes spewing what amounted to "and did you see when that guy threw the ball and the other one caught it" before I could watch the Simpsons. When they're all off camera I'm sure they discuss "this one time at football camp"...
The ImagiNation Network (INN) was actually The Sierra Network (TSN) before ATT got ahold of it. I was very sad to see it go as the sentimental value was high for me and my wife -- we met in Larry Land.
In those days, the blood bank was your friend!