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iTunes moving to tiered price model, making iTunes Plus the standard


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iTunes moving to tiered price model, making iTunes Plus the standard
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chucker
 
Join Date: May 2004
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2009-01-11, 12:12

Quote:
Originally Posted by Wrao View Post
Did you read my post? or hit reply before finishing?
Yes, I did. That the user agreement disallows this does not preclude that there are laws that disallow it as well.
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Wrao
Yarp
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Road Warrior
 
2009-01-11, 12:22

Quote:
Originally Posted by chucker View Post
Yes, I did. That the user agreement disallows this does not preclude that there are laws that disallow it as well.
And I am aware of that, I just assumed I did not need to be nit-picky, for the sake of my joke.
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chucker
 
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2009-01-11, 12:33

Well, in any case, there are plenty of reasons to strip the DRM beyond just handing the file out to friends (which, too, would be legal… within limits): listening to the file on players that don't support FairPlay (say, a car MP3 CD player), editing the file beyond iTunes's basic cropping and equalizing, remixing it, etc.
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MBHockey
skates=grafs
 
Join Date: May 2005
Location: New York
 
2009-03-15, 22:23

Ah, wonderful!

There is a nice utility available on TPB for up to 8.0.2 which stripped my DRM'ed songs and replaced them with perfect, lossless copies of those files. It even worked on the three movies I've purchased from iTunes!

I have zero DRM files in my library now. ZERO! I'm FREE! I can't believe it was just about 1,000 songs with DRM. I've spent a good deal of money on music from iTunes in the past four years.

It paid to not upgrade to iTunes 8.1 right away

Edit: just wanted to pop in and say that, as expected, the stripped files work perfectly with 8.1

Last edited by MBHockey : 2009-03-16 at 07:46.
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Robo
Formerly Roboman, still
awesome
 
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Portland, OR
 
2009-07-20, 01:52

So, four months and change, how are we all feeling about this?

I've noticed that there seems to be a lot more songs that jumped up to $1.29 than dropped to $0.69. I knew there would be - it's pretty much a veiled price hike, just like iTunes Plus sort of was. (I guess if you thought that $1.29 was a fair price for iTunes Plus all along, you'd be happy if even a handful of songs halved in price. But to me, the extra charge for iTunes Plus always seemed like nickel and diming...it does not cost any more to send me a 256kbps file, seriously.)

I'll still go with Amazon in any cases where Amazon's selling for $0.99 what Apple's selling for $1.29. The difference between a 256kbps MP3 and a 256kbps AAC isn't worth the price difference to me. I kinda hope that $0.99 sort of stays the "standard" download price for a good while...lord knows it's hard enough to get people to pay a buck a song as it is. Thoughts?

and i guess i've known it all along / the truth is, you have to be soft to be strong
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PB PM
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2009-07-20, 02:02

I must be lucky, none of the music I like seems to fall into the over 99 cent range.
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chucker
 
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2009-07-20, 02:04

Quote:
Originally Posted by Roboman View Post
it does not cost any more to send me a 256kbps file, seriously.)
No, but material costs never play a big role in licensing. It doesn't cost $10 to produce a CD album, and it doesn't cost $399 to produce a DVD of Windows Vista Ultimate. Or even $1.

Having said that, I too found $1.29 too much for iTunes Plus. ¢99 is the sweet spot of song pricing.

There's already some evidence that the tiered pricing has hurt revenues… Is anyone surprised?
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Robo
Formerly Roboman, still
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2009-07-20, 02:11

Quote:
Originally Posted by chucker View Post
No, but material costs never play a big role in licensing. It doesn't cost $10 to produce a CD album, and it doesn't cost $399 to produce a DVD of Windows Vista Ultimate. Or even $1.

Having said that, I too found $1.29 too much for iTunes Plus. ¢99 is the sweet spot of song pricing.

There's already some evidence that the tiered pricing has hurt revenues, but I can't find the link right now.
Oh, I know. But it's not like the artists have to spend more money to buy special 256kbps equipment, on top of their regular recording equipment and instruments. It's not like it takes any workers more time to compress a song to 256kbps. It's not like the 256kbps song requires millions of lines of code to be written just for it, or large amounts of technical support.

For all practical purposes, the 128kbps song and the 256kbps song are identical in cost. In fact, the server storage and bandwidth required to sell a 256kbps file today is almost certainly cheaper than the storage and bandwidth required to sell a 128kbps file when the iTMS first launched.

The labels might have asked for more money, since iTunes Plus is DRM-free. But I'm not even sure if that's the case...?

EDIT: Thanks for finding the link. $1.29 songs are less popular; is anyone surprised?

The "old songs will be cheaper, new songs will be more expensive" thing never really happened. Daft Punk songs are $1.29, and their best stuff is about a decade old. Justice, who's entire history has been written since Daft Punk's last album, sells their songs for $0.99. Yes, they're on different labels, but seriously? $1.29 is too much for Around the World in two-thousand-f'ing-nine.

and i guess i've known it all along / the truth is, you have to be soft to be strong

Last edited by Robo : 2009-07-20 at 02:22.
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Luca
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Join Date: May 2004
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2009-07-20, 08:46

Yeah, I agree with you, Roboman. I don't think any song more than a year old should cost $1.29. That should be the standard, in fact. "New Releases" come out at $1.29 and stay there for one year, then drop to $0.99. Then at ten years, they drop to $0.69. Won't happen, but that's how it should be.

It's been a while since I've even visited, much less bought anything from, the iTunes music store. I doubt I ever will again. Amazon just kicks its ass in every way. And while AAC files may sound slightly better than MP3, I tend to prefer MP3 for its superior compatibility.
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bassplayinMacFiend
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Join Date: Jun 2004
 
2009-07-20, 09:28

Quote:
Originally Posted by Luca View Post
Yeah, I agree with you, Roboman. I don't think any song more than a year old should cost $1.29. That should be the standard, in fact. "New Releases" come out at $1.29 and stay there for one year, then drop to $0.99. Then at ten years, they drop to $0.69. Won't happen, but that's how it
I looked up an album from 1990 and its biggest hit is selling for $1.29. Every other song on the album is $0.99. No songs were cheaper. I've yet to see a song I've searched on selling for $0.69.
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Luca
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2009-07-20, 09:46

Well, Amazon's MP3s are all either $0.99 or $0.89. They may have other prices on a few, but I've never seen anything for more than $0.99.

So I guess iTunes just sucks a big one. But that's been the case almost since launch. Apple has improved it, to be sure, but it's always too late and they always introduce something new to make it worse. First it was novel but had DRM and a low bitrate. Then they fixed the DRM and bitrate problem but the price was too high. Now the pricing is STILL too high, with no lower-cost option either.

Of course, that won't stop tons of people from buying from them anyway because they aren't aware that there are a whole lot of better and cheaper download services available.
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bassplayinMacFiend
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2009-07-20, 10:19

I use Amazon's service myself, I just happened to check iTMS pricing on the bus to work this morning since I received a $25 gift card from Juniper for buying my MBP through them. I'll probably end up buying all iPhone apps with the $25.
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PB PM
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2009-07-20, 11:36

iTunes gift cards cannot be used on apps.
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Bonn89
Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2006
 
2009-07-20, 11:47

Quote:
Originally Posted by PB PM View Post
iTunes gift cards cannot be used on apps.
Wrong-o. They sure can; I've done it myself multiple times.
  quote
Wyatt
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Join Date: Mar 2005
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2009-07-20, 11:57

Quote:
Originally Posted by St Bonney View Post
Wrong-o. They sure can; I've done it myself multiple times.
Me too. I've used at least $50 in iTunes gift cards for apps.
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Xaqtly
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Join Date: May 2004
 
2009-07-20, 12:05

Quote:
Originally Posted by Luca View Post
Well, Amazon's MP3s are all either $0.99 or $0.89.
I went to the new/upcoming releases page, clicked on the first track I saw, and it was $1.29. Amazon has always had tracks for $1.29, that's how they got the record labels to let them go DRM-free from the start.

The pricing usually has to do with the popularity of the track. As a result, most of the music I buy from iTunes is either $.99/track or less. I guess I'm just not very hip.
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PB PM
Sneaky Punk
 
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2009-07-20, 12:09

Quote:
Originally Posted by St Bonney View Post
Wrong-o. They sure can; I've done it myself multiple times.
Guess its just the Canadian store that you cannot.
  quote
bassplayinMacFiend
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2009-07-20, 12:15

Quote:
Originally Posted by PB PM View Post
Guess its just the Canadian store that you cannot.
I've already used $2 of my gift card on apps at the US store. The gift card said it could only be used on the store from the country it was purchased. Maybe someone bought you a gift card in the US? Are $0.99 apps 0.99$ in Canada or do they convert currencies?
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Swox
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Join Date: Oct 2006
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2009-07-20, 12:21

Quote:
Originally Posted by PB PM View Post
Guess its just the Canadian store that you cannot.
That's right. You can in the US store, not the Canadian one. Pretty f'ing lame.
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PKIDelirium
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Join Date: Oct 2005
 
2009-07-20, 12:28

I only buy music from iTunes if it's not available on Amazon MP3. I also prefer MP3, but I'm not too picky about it now that iTunes is DRM-free.
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PB PM
Sneaky Punk
 
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2009-07-20, 12:38

Quote:
Originally Posted by bassplayinMacFiend View Post
I've already used $2 of my gift card on apps at the US store. The gift card said it could only be used on the store from the country it was purchased. Maybe someone bought you a gift card in the US? Are $0.99 apps 0.99$ in Canada or do they convert currencies?
Nope, no US cards. Songs that are 99 cents in the states are 99 cents in Canada (99 cents at the current exchange rate is 84 cents US), haha our songs are cheaper.
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bassplayinMacFiend
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Join Date: Jun 2004
 
2009-07-20, 12:43

Quote:
Originally Posted by PB PM View Post
Nope, no US cards. Songs that are 99 cents in the states are 99 cents in Canada (99 cents at the current exchange rate is 84 cents US), haha our songs are cheaper.
Wow, that's certainly a reversal of fortune for you guys up in freezer-land, eh? I remember when I would go to Maine as a kid, Canadians were lucky if the discount was only 25%.

In related news, the RIAA declares, DRM is dead.
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PB PM
Sneaky Punk
 
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2009-07-20, 12:55

I wish it was the land of freeze... its far from freezing right now, it was in the 90s just a few days ago.
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Luca
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2009-07-20, 13:06

Quote:
Originally Posted by Xaqtly View Post
I went to the new/upcoming releases page, clicked on the first track I saw, and it was $1.29. Amazon has always had tracks for $1.29, that's how they got the record labels to let them go DRM-free from the start.

The pricing usually has to do with the popularity of the track. As a result, most of the music I buy from iTunes is either $.99/track or less. I guess I'm just not very hip.
Heh.

I guess I've never gone to buy a $1.29 song.

It's funny, though. I thought reducing prices generally meant much higher sales... more than enough to offset the lower cost. I mean, this is basically pure profit. The only significant "costs" are licensing-related.

I bet sales would go through the roof if everything was $0.69.
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Xaqtly
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Join Date: May 2004
 
2009-07-20, 15:56

Absolutely! But the labels are very, very greedy. More sales at the cost of reducing the price (even with the possibility of additional net profit) just doesn't seem to compute with them.
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