Price Hike Coming to iTunes on April 7?

Though Apple is yet to announce it publicly, on 7 April iTunes pricing for individual songs’ pricing limit will be increased from $0.99 to $1.29.



The move is part of a new “variable pricing” model and could, apparently, decrease the cost of other, likely less popular individual songs. Apple had hinted at this pricing model in January, but there was never any indication for when, or even why, such a model was being implemented in the first place.

Though most of 10 million songs available in iTunes will remain at the standard $0.99 price, already the price increase is stirring up quite a backlash, causing EMI Music executive Ted Cohen to make a damning parallel, saying that, “It is for the music industry what the AIG bonuses are for the insurance company.”

The public perception of the music industry or, more accurately its legal/copyright arm, has never been favorable, but in recent years, as CD sales have declined in favor of digital acquisition, both legal and otherwise, that perception has shifted from indifferent to outright embittered. Now, amidst a lingering recession and despite a record-making $1 billion in digital music sales set in 2008, the damage to the music industry’s public perception could be irreparable.

Even those that look to profit from the price increase wonder if the price increase will actually prove to increase illegal downloading and even dissuade those that seek to download legally and subsequently recede from the $1 billion mark set last year.

Whatever the logic or reasoning, there was time and a place to increase the price of single tracks and, unfortunately, that was six years ago, in 2003 when iTunes first launched.

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