Music Weirdness
After the record labels went bats over the need for variable pricing, Apple finally gave in. The weirdness? Songs you can buy for $1.29 on iTunes are still $0.99 on Amazon - and Amazon's store will drop stuff right into iTunes. Maybe they figure the iTunes brand will drive enough people to allow for that markup, but I'm not so sure...
Comments
Monopoly
[Colin Putney] April 7, 2009 13:35:17.542
I'd guess that the labels are giving Amazon better pricing to keep Apple from getting a monopoly in the music distribution space. As iTunes becomes *the* place to buy music, the labels have less and less bargaining power with Apple. Variable pricing might be the last concession they can get from Apple, and they had to give up DRM to get it. Now they're using that pricing leverage to encourage competition.