Apple In Strong Position For iTunes Store Contract Extensions?
Last year, record companies tried unsuccessfully to introduce tiered pricing of individual tracks into iTunes. Instead, an extension was signed with no real perceivable difference in terms.
This year, Reuters reports that Apple is in an even stronger position after having signed up EMI to offer "premium" tracks without DRM for an additional fee.
"EMI struck a deal that puts all of us at a disadvantage," said a music executive who spoke on condition of anonymity. He said EMI had agreed to let Apple sell its music without anti-piracy protection to please shareholders concerned that the record company was behind in the digital music race.
Despite this, the record companies will most likely still try to gain concessions such as a higher wholesale price or the addition of a subscription model.
"The record companies like the idea of the recurring revenue," said Gartner analyst Mike McGuire. "The challenge will be to convince Apple that it's worth the extra costs involved in setting it up."
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I wonder how much negotiation is involved in album pricing.
I was always under the impression that album pricing was, for the most part, left up to the labels themselves to decide. They're kinda in a bind, of course, due to the 99 cent individual tracks, but could get around it by implementing "Album only" songs.
And I could have sworn I pulled that from one of Apple's conference calls, but this one from 2004 is the closest I could find.
Steve Jobs: Well, let me tell you how we...first of all, that the USA article was inaccurate. There clearly are some albums on iTunes, there's a few of them, that are priced a little higher, but the vast majority of albums are $9.99 or below and, you know, believe me, they're, you know, they're aggressively priced. But the way we do it is that every song on iTunes is 99 cents, but the album prices do float around a little bit based on what the labels want to charge for them, and we encourage the labels to price them aggressively because, as you may know, over 40 percent of the songs sold on iTunes are sold as albums. I think it actually approaches 50 percent. And so, the more, you know, the more reasonably priced the albums are, the more it encourages users to buy the full album rather than their three favorite songs and everybody wins that way.
i like the fact steve has the music execs by the balls.
werd. :cool:
:cool: ooooh yeahhhhhh :D
i like the fact steve has the music execs by the balls.
werd. :cool:
lol seriously
wonder if Apple will go into the music recording biz :p
2. hi-res music one price, albums a higher price
3. lo-res TV shows one price, seasons a higher price
4. hi-res TV shows one price, seasons a higher price
5. lo-res movies one price, series a higher price
6. hi-res movies one price, series a higher price
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