Friday, March 27, 2009

New iTunes Prices (Higher, That Is) Coming April 7th

The iTunes price increase for songs it deems the "hottest" selections will go into effect on April 7th, it's been confirmed. Record labels have long wanted variable pricing (and higher prices) for digital downloads. Steve Jobs has never seemed to be in a hurry to raise the cost of a song, since Apple is using the iTunes store as a loss leader for selling iPods.

But now you'll pay 30% more if you want the latest hits or certain classic or in-demand backlist titles (not sure exactly how they've going to determine which older tracks should have the higher price).

If you don't like the new higher prices, CMT.com (Web site of Country Music Television) suggests checking out Spun.com, which will buy your old CDs that you no longer want, and sell you new ones. CMT gives some examples, saying that you can get many country CDs for less than eight dollars, and get three dollars or more for the ones you sell... meaning you can get a full-length CD for about the cost of five songs on iTunes.

Sounds like a good deal to me.

No comments :