Cool, the music industry sucks even more!

[Lord Nepenthean]

Found this on the woxy.com message boards:

according to musicbiz.com.

Quote:
The media is reporting that some of the major labels are trying to prod online music retailers such as iTunes into raising the per-track price of their music. To say that Apple's Steve Jobs is less than enthused with the notion is to say that the Iraqi people would be less than enthused about throwing a slumber party at Abu Ghraib. Granted, the profit margins for all concerned - online retailers and label interests - are slim. Labels would contend that the initial price was one to generate interest; now that the demand is strong, the time is ripe for a incremental price increase. However, there are those who'd argue that the online music retail business is just starting to get a legitimate foothold in the public consciousness, and a price rise could easily throw the momentum back to the illegal pirate networks. Any way you slice it, such a move would be a risky gamble at a time when a long-term sales rebound is anything but set in stone.

[Arrrhalomynn]

The music industry is once again digging its own grave. I hardly buy music now, so it doesn't really matter to me wether they go from bad to worse though.

I think apple is in bigger danger. With the rise of popularity of that russian mp3 site that sells songs 10 times cheaper.

[Lord Nepenthean]

Ooooh what is that site?  I need a link if you have one.

[Arrrhalomynn]

http://www.allofmp3.com/ there you go.

[CatchFiveBats]

If I ever buy music, it's not digitally.  I like to have something solid to go along with what I'm listening to.  If I ever have a burned/digital copy of a CD, I usually end up buying it eventually anyway, so this doesnt really affect me that much.

But still, I think $0.99 a song is a reasonable price.  If I actually bought my music from iTunes, I'd be pretty ticked if the price of songs was raised.

[Lord Nepenthean]

And if you buy 20 songs for a mix CD, $20 is reasonable for one disc?  It's not to me, especially not when eMusic (a much smaller company) can sell me a track at 22 cents.  iTunes costs 450% as much.  That's quite a price increase, especially from large companies and labels that should be able to sell their product for much less than the little guy.

[CatchFiveBats]

And if you buy 20 songs for a mix CD, $20 is reasonable for one disc?

No, it's not, but that's what a lot of CDs cost anyway.  Prices on music these days are ridiculous, and if I need songs for a mix CD, I would much rather buy them individually for $0.99 each than have to pay for each CD that I want a song from.

Of course, if you bring other, cheaper music download programs into play, then you're absolutely right.  $0.99 a song is ridiculous when compared to $0.22 a song, so I can't really argue with you there.

[Hydrobond]

What about monthly deals like Napster? Basically 1,000,000 songs for 10 a month.

[Lord Nepenthean]

I signed up for a trial of Napster, and it was okay.  You can listen to all those songs, yes, but only while you are actually at your PC.  And, it costs extra beyond the monthly fee if you want to burn the songs on a CD.  Want to burn the same song twice?  Pay twice.  On eMusic, you actually get to downloa a MP3.  It doesn't have any license garbage, and you can burn it as many times as you want, legally.  Now, eMusic is all independent labels, so it is not for everyone.  However, I couldn't justify paying for Napster when I tried it.  I know they have increased their library since then, so maybe I'll give it another try sometime.  I just didn't like that I had to pay $10 a month plus more for each track I want to burn.

[Hydrobond]

I didn't see that, however I was really only looking at the MP3 player advantage to getting Napster. For the $10 a month, you can put the songs on an MP3 player.  However, I decided against it when I saw that you had to keep paying for the subscription if you still wanted to listen to the music. Not sure how they enforce that on the MP3 player either.  

[Arrrhalomynn]

So you basically pay 10 bucks a month to listen to radio on demand.

[Lord Nepenthean]

Hm, the MP3 player thing must be new then.  It wasn't that way when I did the trial.  I saw something advertising that on their site recently, and wondered if that was really the offer.  Thanks for the info.

[The Metamorphosing Leon]

You mean you people pay for music?

[Lord Nepenthean]

Well, I do as long as it's not Metallica or Will Smith.  If it's one of them, I download it for sure.  Will Smith's music sucks, but I download that on principle since he SINGS about not downloading his album ON HIS ALBUM.