Would you buy music off iTunes for £9.99 an album, when you can get the cd for £8.99 and just rip it?
well Apple needs to be both competive in its market place, and cover its costs, plenty of companys face the cost of there stock going off, they dont shut the store and say its all the fault of the suppliers. and if I was going to rip music off a CD for a MP3 player, an iPod would not be my choice of MP3 Not saying the music industry is correct, but for Apple to stamp its feet and say, if you put the prices up we will close the site down, is the worst thing they could do.
How can they stay competitive and cover their costs if they raise their royalty fees to the point where they can do neither? If 99c, minus the 9c for royalty payments covers their costs with a little profit, then they triple their royalty payments, and leave themselves with no profit, how can they possibly keep selling at the same price?
Breaking news: The royalty rate is remaining the same. Link So it looks like no shutdown will occur after all.
Their prices are already pretty much at the edge of acceptable, there are other cheaper servicess already, so any price increases will take them out of being comeptitive altogether.
didums, dont expect me to feel sorry for a company if market forces mean they cant compete, beside cant you ONLY put tunes from iTunes on iPods? if so that is pretty much a captive market who will pay whatever you charge
No, you can download off iTunes, burn to disc, and then re-rip to MP3, or OGG or file type of your preference. That's what I've done with anything I've bought off iTunes. So you're saying you would rather support the big companies that screw you and the artists out of money, than the company that made legal downloads work?
I can't say I really care all that much for iTunes, but I like the major record labels even less. iTunes may be bluffing, but they do have a point here, why should they attempt to stay in a loss making business, just to allow the labels to be even more greedy? I don't see how they could really reduce their costs, if they're already making minimal profit as it is.
True enough. I just hate the way the RIAA and other similar organisations work, so I'm likely to back anyone who'll go up against them.
I would just like to repeat: The rate hike has been defeated. So Apple will not be shutting down the store.
I'm aware of that, I didn't even get in to the discussion until after it was defeated. I just think the big labels are shortsighted and idiotic.
I just think it was a really dumb bluff to make, would they really have shut it down? firehawk12 the combination of iTunes & iPod is a good thing for all those who want to pay for legal music.
And it's bad if you decide you want to move to a different mp3 player after purchasing things from iTMS. Which is why DRM free tracks are so important.
Amazon MP3 is the best online store. Just mp3s, nothing more. Someone could nuke Amazon HQ tomorrow, the company could be wiped off the face of the earth and your music is still your music. Just the way it should be. Playable almost anywhere.
One has to give Apple credit, it's not often that one finds consumers willing to openly advocate monopolistic practices that run contrary to consumer interests by artificially suppressing potential competition. That's one hell of a marketing department they've got there.
Basically. I still find it cute that people are shocked that the iPhone is locked down to hell. Apple trying to limit the user experience to what they want? Apple releasing firmware that bricks "jailbroken" phones? Shocking.
there is a cool factor to Apple that seems to allow them to get away with anything they want, at one stage, people would go around saying, I own an Apple Mac, then iPod and now the iPhone. They will take whatever crap Apple give them, just so they can be associated with a cool brand.