The new iTunes Pass program gets its first attempt to break the 99 cent per song barrier with the new Depeche Mode record slated for release on April 21st.iTunes Pass allows the buyer of the album to access exclusive content from the artist for up to 15 weeks. The content will include videos, exclusive singles, remixes and other content items and will be piped directly to the customer's iTunes account as soon as it's available. The charge is a flat $18.99 which includes the full album when it releases plus numerous extras. If a customer buys a Depeche Mode Pass today, he'll receive the new single Wrong as well as the Black Light Odyssey Dub Remix of the new track Oh Well. They will also receive the new album Sounds of the Universe on its street date plus promised music and video exclusives before and after the album's release over the next fifteen weeks.
iTunes Pass is an attempt to counteract illegal digital downloading by providing an extra value that can only be had by actually buying the product.
The program is also being offered for television shows like The Colbert Report and The Daily Show, where it does seem to be a bargain. If you buy an individual episode, it currently costs $1.99, but if you now buy a 16 episode pack, it reduces the price of each show to 62 cents. However, you get the current show plus the next 15, not our choice of your favorite 15.
This amounts to something that Apple said it would never do - subscription.
1 comment:
This is the way they have to do it if they hope to salvage any significant amount of legal sales. I'm not a fan of this group, but I'd be right there if, say, The Who did something like this. (BTW, they already are, sort of, at http://www.thewho.com/. It's a web site where you have to pay to get at Pete's blog and other "extras." I'd pony up if it was hard copies of DVD's and stuff I could hold in my hand.)
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