In a movement 180 degrees opposite to what we've been reporting in Europe and Australia, five of the major music companies are discussing hiking the price of digital downloads on new releases — to anywhere from $1.25 to as much as $2.49. According to this article yesterday on the WSJ several hot new-release albums already sell on Apple iTunes for more than Amazon.com CD.
For months, digital-music services have been touting albums for $9.99 to entice more people to buy online. But Apple Computer Inc.'s iTunes Music Store has been charging $16.99 for "Fly or Die," while Roxio Inc.'s Napster service sells the 12-song collection for $13.99. Both prices are higher than the $13.49 that Amazon.com charges for the CD itself. The same pricing shifts are showing up on albums by a growing slate of artists, from Shakira to Bob Dylan.
In case you don't have access to the WSJ here's a NPD group chart showing some titles that are cheaper on CD than when purchased in digital form.
Artist/Title |
Publisher |
iTunes |
Napster |
Musicmatch |
Retail Stores* |
Amazon.com |
Anastacia,
|
Sony |
$13.99 |
$13.99 |
$11.99 |
$11.98 |
$14.99 |
Beyonce,
|
Sony |
9.99 |
15.842 |
9.99 |
13.87 |
13.49 |
Chingy,
|
EMI |
13.99 |
13.99 |
11.99 |
12.78 |
13.99 |
Fountains of Wayne,
|
EMI |
13.99 |
9.95 |
11.99 |
13.88 |
13.49 |
Jewel,
|
Warner Music |
11.99 |
12.88** |
9.99 |
13.25 |
13.99 |
Korn,
|
Sony |
11.99 |
9.95 |
9.99 |
13.85 |
13.98 |
Liz Phair,
|
EMI |
13.86 |
13.99 |
11.99 |
12.46 |
13.49 |
Norah Jones,
|
EMI |
13.86 |
13.99 |
12.49 |
13.74 |
13.49 |
Norah Jones,
|
EMI |
12.87 |
13.99 |
11.99 |
12.58 |
13.49 |
OutKast,
|













1. with prices like these programs like poisoned and limewire are starting to gain back some of their appeal.......
Posted at 5:55AM on Dec 19th 2005 by keeneyjj