It looks like the new iTunes variable pricing plan will finally hit the streets on April 7th. If you've not heard, instead of every song in the iTunes catalog available for a flat 99 cents, a 3 tier variable pricing structure will be introduced - 69 cents for catalog, 99 cents for recent releases, and $1.29 for current hits. The $1.29 tier will have higher bandwidth and no DRM.
iTunes has over 10 million songs now available at 99 cents. According to the NPD Group, the average spend per consumer is $41 a year.
In this economic climate, raising the price on anything seems like market suicide, but the labels have fought for this for a long time. I guess we'll know on April 8th just how smart of a decision it really is.
2 comments:
I'd closely watch the traffic on PirateBay and the few music pirating sites in the following 30-60 days. That'll give us an interesting data point to follow.
Yes, it seems there's some push back about to happen.
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