Andre Yoskowitz
11 Apr 2009 21:44
Last Tuesday, Apple's iTunes went DRM-free, but at the same time began charging more for new hit singles, $1.29 USD, up from the standard $0.99.
Two days ago, Amazon and Wal-Mart followed the move by upping the price of new tracks by 30 cents as well, to $1.29 on Amazon, and $1.24 at Wal-Mart. Apple now sells older tracks for 69 cents, 99 cents for most new tracks, and $1.29 for the biggest new hits.
It appears, in what can only be described as a "shocking" development, that the rise in prices is hurting sales of the more expensive tracks, and could eventually lead to less revenue as well. These conclusions, from Billboard are only based on two days of data however, and are obviously subject to change. So far, the higher priced songs continue to lose chart positions to lower price songs.
On average, $1.29 songs lost 5.3 places on the Top 100 sales chart, while $0.99 songs gained 2.5 spots. A few of the songs that were initially $.99 on Tuesday but changed to $1.29 on Wednesday lost an average 1.9 places, while those that remained $1.29 for both days lost a huge 7.7 average positions.
The same trend was seen on Thursday with the more expensive tracks losing even more spots, an average of 12.4.
You can view the report here: Billboard