Labels want to jack download prices
And this is the line of the day:
“I think whoever came up with this idea understands the online music industry about as well as a cow understands algebra,” said Phil Leigh, senior analyst for Inside Digital Media.
Given that we’re talking about label weasels here, if it comes to wagering my money is on the cow.
[THX to Brian at daedalnexus for the heads-up.]
lullaby pit 
perfect. i’ve been buying less music of late because the price is too high considering how restrictive the license is. if i’m going to pay $.99 for 3 minutes of intellectual property without so much as a shiny disc, jewel case, and liner notes, i had better be able to drag that super hi-rez (giggle) file onto any medium i choose.
glad to see the NHL doesn’t have a corner on the stupid business practices market.
Rhapsody is the way to go
I’ve been a subscriber to the Comcast Rhapsody music prgram for about 6 months now and couldn’t be happier. Basically it’s streaming music for a flat fee of, I think around $10 a month. The great thing is that the number of albums on there is staggering, it’ s digital quality, and it does not clutter up your hard drive. If you want to buy a song, you simply burn it onto CD (.79 per song) and convert it to MP3. Yeah, it’s an extra step but honestly I have burned one 15 track compilation the whole time I’ve had it. I use it as a jukebox and have saved tons of money. Worth checking out if you’re a music junkie.
I’ve got an IPOD too and all I do is take the converted MP3 and put them into Itunes. Same as if I downloaded from Itunes in the first place. worth checking out, I think Rhapsody has a 14 day free trial.
Downloads are overpriced regardless
If I can buy a CD for about $1 per song, with all the added costs of marketing, CD pressing, distribution, etc. then the music labels can sell me the music online (with no marketing costs, no CD pressing costs, no distribution costs, etc.) for a lot LESS than $1 per song. I’ll start considering music downloads at $.50 per song, and might actually start buying substantial quantities of music at around $.25 per song. Or the labels could always drop CD prices to $5 per 15-17 track CD. Or I can do what I try to do these days – buy direct from the artist. At least that way there’s a chance most of the money is going to the artist instead of the damn labels.
And to think, people complain about the music industry’s greed over CD prices. That’s nothing to what they’re trying to do with downloads.
Brian
The Daedalnexus