Major Labels Continue Pressuring iTunes to Increase Prices, Evil-ness

Just as news surfaced that iTunes' music store is outselling Tower Records, Sam Goody, and Borders to be the 7th ranked music seller in the U.S, Steve Jobs and Co. just might start raising prices. The successful formula of 99 cents per song has amounted to 600 million downloads since 2003, but according to EMI Music CEO Alain Levy, that will likely be coming to an end, and soon.

"We are having discussions which make us believe it will happen in the next 12 months," Levy was quoted as saying at a press conference, according to the Wall Street Journal. "There is a common understanding that we will have to come to a variable pricing structure. The issue is when. There is a case for superstars to have a higher price."

This means that the price of "My Humps" for example, a popular song by feminist activists The Black Eyed Peas, could increase, while the greatest hits of Jim Beam and the String Bean Band (name assumed fictional) could decrease. In other words, a tiered system would be in effect. Now just what constitutes a superstar is up for debate, but chances are it will depend, of course, on what label the act is on and how much clout they have.

Jobs has lobbied hard against hiking up prices on downloads, going as far as to call record labels "a little greedy," fearing that such a move could lead to an increased piracy backlash. Speaking in Paris, Jobs said "Customers think the price is really good where it is. If the price goes up a lot, they'll go back to piracy. Then everybody loses." So... given up that LimeWire account yet? We thought not.

What's that commercial that says you can control the Black Eyed Peas at the press of a button? Yeah, I hate that one. The question is whether you do it legally or if you have a metal plate in your head.

great stuff, wish I had written it. hope I don't have any copyright issues...but it's from tinymixtapes.com. It was posted a while ago.