First the Price of Gas, Now the Price of Music

I'm sure you've heard by now--I've already seen the story on two local newscasts--that iTunes will be raising their prices come April. Apple made the announcement yesterday at their annual Macworld Conference and Expo (just imagine all the geeky brain power floating around in that room). (left: Besides a 30 cents price increase, Apple also introduces the 69 cents bargain-bin price to iTunes). Popular songs (aka: bangers, smash hits, bomb tracks, must-have singles, jammy jams) will increase from 99 cents to $1.29. Moderately popular songs (aka: NOT bangers, smash hits, bomb tracks, must-have singles, jammy jams) will stay at 99 cents, while certain album tracks will be available for 69 cents. Record companies will set the price range....

I’m sure you’ve heard by now–I’ve already seen the story on two local newscasts–that iTunes will be raising their prices come April. Apple made the announcement yesterday at their annual Macworld Conference and Expo (just imagine all the geeky brain power floating around in that room).

(left: Besides a 30 cents price increase, Apple also introduces the 69 cents bargain-bin price to iTunes).

Popular songs (aka: bangers, smash hits, bomb tracks, must-have singles, jammy jams) will increase from 99 cents to $1.29. Moderately popular songs (aka: NOT bangers, smash hits, bomb tracks, must-have singles, jammy jams) will stay at 99 cents, while certain album tracks will be available for 69 cents. Record companies will set the price range.

Tracks purchased on iTunes will also be free of any anti-copying restrictions, which means you can transfer them freely from computer to phone to hard-drive to any digital device you want without having to burn it onto a disc then reloading it onto your computer (yes). For those who want to retroactively strip existing songs of anti-copying restrictions, Apple said customers would be able to pay a one-time fee to do so.

The price increase marks a small victory for record labels who wanted to hike up Apple’s 99-cents-a-song standard for the last few years. With CD sales tanking again in 2008, the extra 30 cents a song will come in handy (last year 2.4 billion songs were sold through iTunes).

For those bummed about the price increase, keep in mind that 10 years ago, if you wanted track #6 and #11 on a certain album, you had to pay for the whole thing. And remember, you couldn’t buy a CD-single for less than $2.

And for those that rip all of their music through third-party music sharing sites, you don’t have a damn thing to worry about.