EMI chief executive Alain Levy has been quoted as saying that he discussed the issue of a single 99c price point for downloaded music with Steve Jobs and he believes Apple will change its policy, possibly some time in the next 12 months. Unsurprisingly, Apple is refusing to comment on the issue, although Apple did come out and flatly deny another claim by EMI, that it was working to allow music from EMI content protected discs to be transfered to the iPod.
So far Apple has resisted the call for “variable pricing”, and market forces have allowed the company to get away with it. If Apple is forced to increase the average price for its songs in the next year or so it will have a strong impact on the perceived value of mobile music, which will look less expensive in comparison. Of course, if the labels had worked with music downloads and p2p services when they were introduced rather than when they were forced to they wouldn’t be having this problem now…
Related stories:
–Universal Joins Variable Pricing Fight
–A Quick Rethink Over Mobile Music
–Record Labels Court Mobile Carriers
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