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Music Media Businesses The Almighty Buck

Exchange Rates Play With Online Music Prices 343

Posted by timothy from the travelin'-man dept.
EconolineCrush writes "Those looking to purchase songs online may find that the price of music downloads varies quite a bit from country to country. Most vendors seem to be favoring 0.99/track pricing schemes, but $0.99CDN is worth quite a bit less than 0.99 British Pounds. When indexed to the US dollar, Canadians using Puretracks are getting a bargain with tracks costing only $0.76US, while UK residents using Coke's new music store are getting ripped off at nearly $1.80US per song. iTunes and Wal Mart sit between the two, with tracks selling for $0.99 and $0.88, respectively."
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Exchange Rates Play With Online Music Prices More

Exchange Rates Play With Online Music Prices

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  • How funny (Score:5, Funny)

    by ObviousGuy ( 578567 ) <ObviousGuy@hotmail.com> on Monday January 19, 2004 @11:02PM (#8028087) Homepage Journal
    Why pay at all?

  • Seems to reflect CD pricing bias (Score:5, Informative)

    by Humba ( 112745 ) * on Monday January 19, 2004 @11:03PM (#8028096)
    A quick check shows this may not be out-of-line with current CD pricing around the world.

    While CD-prices differ widely in comparison - at 1996 exchange rates, a normal CD cost

    below US-$ 16.00 in the USA

    US-$ 14.00 in Canada

    US-$ 25.00 in Japan

    US-$ 23.00 in Germany

    US-$ 24.00 in the UK

    Source [www.move.de]

    Note, the data is indeed eight years old. (jeeze, was 1996 that long ago?) Pardon the US bias, but this still seems to reflect what I understand are current retail prices.

    --H

    • Re:Seems to reflect CD pricing bias (Score:4, Informative)

      by big_groo ( 237634 ) <groovisNO@SPAMgmail.com> on Monday January 19, 2004 @11:11PM (#8028153) Homepage
      Remember, in Canada, we pay more for the media.

    • Re:Seems to reflect CD pricing bias (Score:5, Interesting)

      by grqb ( 410789 ) on Monday January 19, 2004 @11:20PM (#8028214) Homepage Journal
      The economist just added a Starbuck's tall latte index (a purchasing-power parity test) similar to their Big Mac Index. How long will it be until they add an "mp3 index"?

      Both the tall latte index and the Big Mac index show that the Canadian dollar is undervalued compared to the US dollar (which means that we get things cheaper here!). Sweet.

      • Re:Seems to reflect CD pricing bias (Score:5, Informative)

        by quantaman ( 517394 ) on Tuesday January 20, 2004 @12:46AM (#8028759)
        The economist just added a Starbuck's tall latte index (a purchasing-power parity test) similar to their Big Mac Index. How long will it be until they add an "mp3 index"?

        Both the tall latte index and the Big Mac index show that the Canadian dollar is undervalued compared to the US dollar (which means that we get things cheaper here!). Sweet.

        Note that both those products you're paying mostly for service. We earn similar pay as in the US except the dollars we earn are worth less, as a result when we pay for something that can be sold on either side of the border (like a computer) than we pay more of our dollars than americans, if on the other hand we are paying for something that requires local service (like a Big Mac) we pay about the same number of dollars because the workers are being paid in the same CADs that we are paying.

        So we don't really get things cheaper up here, we make less and occasionally pay less.

    • Re:Seems to reflect CD pricing bias (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Panties McPants ( 612254 ) on Monday January 19, 2004 @11:26PM (#8028251)
      Add to that US-$ 22.50 here in Australia.

      While it may seem to someone in America that the UK may be overpaying for their online music, it probably doesn't seem that way to someone actually in the UK.

      Take games for example. Here in Aus, an average new-release game sells for ~$99, give or take a few dollars due to the store policy or whatnot. Yet there's no outcry "OMG Australians pay $75US per game RIPOFF!!!11!!".
      I think we pay this much as a reflection on the average earnings of an Australian, and by our standards, $100 isn't an exhorbitant amount for a single game.

      I'm sure the 99 pence songs are seen the same way in the UK. Expensive when compared to the American dollar, but reasonably good value to an average Brit.

      • Add to that US-$ 22.50 here in Australia.

        Where are you shopping? Sanity? At JB Hi Fi [jbhifi.com.au] or WOW Sight and Sound [wowwicked.com.au] (latest catalogue: new releases <AUS$20 [wowwicked.com.au]) you can pick up most CDs for AUS$20 - $22, which at current exchange rates (go Aussie dollar GO!) is about US$15 - $17.

        I only hope that when the iTunes Music Store FINALLY gets here, tracks will be no more that AUS$1.50.

        1 AUD = 0.758268 USD; 1 USD = 1.31880 AUD

        FWIW, I think AUS$100+ for a game is a ripoff. Last game I bought was UT.

      • Actually, most Brits I know understand that they are massively ripped off as a country, with respect to almost every commodity.

        This feeling is unavoidably amplified if they've spent any time abroad.

        As a result, Brits who are in somewhat uncomfortable financial cirumstances (e.g. students) spend little money on things like CDs and games, because they simply can't afford it.

        --from an American studying in Britain

      • Re:Seems to reflect CD pricing bias (Score:4, Interesting)

        by Tim C ( 15259 ) on Tuesday January 20, 2004 @03:44AM (#8029466)
        While it may seem to someone in America that the UK may be overpaying for their online music, it probably doesn't seem that way to someone actually in the UK.

        What, you think we can't do basic maths? ;-)

        I've seen the price disparity mentioned in BBC news articles about online music services - 99c in the US, 99p in the UK, with a current exchange rate of around 1.7USD/GBP. Don't worry, some of us at least know that we're being ripped off. Sure, it's cheaper than buying a CD, but it should be. With a music download, you're not getting a physical backup of the music (you have to create your own), and you don't get a case with a nice inlay, notes, etc.

        Just because something is cheaper, doesn't mean it's cheap enough, especially if it's available more cheaply elsewhere, with only artificial limits preventing us from purchasing from that source instead. (ie there's no technological reason why I can't buy music from an online retailer in the US, the data can flow easily enough if they'd only let it)

    • Comment removed (Score:4, Informative)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Monday January 19, 2004 @11:26PM (#8028252)
      Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • I think it should be pointed out that in Canada it is legal for someone to download music even if the source does not have the rights to distribute it. The person distributing is probably breaking the law though.

      This is probably why Puretracks advertising concentrates on how they don't have spyware, porn, or viruses that often comes along with P2P software.
    • i dont think that it's always fair to use exchange rates for things like CDs and online music.

      it's the purchasing power of the currency that matters. although a pound may be worth more than a dollar when it's exchanged, people in england get paid in pounds, and purchase everything in pounds. it doesn't matter (directly) to them how many USD their pound is worth. they only care about what they can buy in england with their pound

      i think a pound has the purchasing power of about 1.15 USD or so. that means,

  • Hosting charges! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Sanga ( 125777 ) <snatarajan AT scu DOT edu> on Monday January 19, 2004 @11:03PM (#8028097) Homepage Journal
    Probably the companies spend more/less money in hosting website in those countries ... and are passing on the cost/savings to the customer.

    Oh wait ... we are talking about the music industry

  • The internet will bring about true global economy (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Dutchmaan ( 442553 ) on Monday January 19, 2004 @11:03PM (#8028098) Homepage
    ..and with a global economy, one can only assume it's a matter of time before the formation of some semblance of world government.

  • Region coding (Score:5, Insightful)

    by iminplaya ( 723125 ) on Monday January 19, 2004 @11:03PM (#8028099) Journal
    I guess maybe we'll have put region codes on music, so we can maintain price discrimination, like on DVD's.

    • Re:Region coding (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Xpilot ( 117961 )
      Only that there is no price discrimination for DVD's. In Malaysia we have to pay for real DVD's with inflated prices that are comparable to US prices after factoring in the exchange rate. And they wonder why Asians pirate.

    • They don't need to region code as long as they maintain seperate stores for each country they can set the prices however they want. No doubt iTunes Europe will be selling tracks for 0.99GBP when it launches with no explanation of why we are paying more than a third more per track. Oh yeah its because 99 is a nice number, well that makes it all ok then.

  • so... (Score:5, Funny)

    by pvt_medic ( 715692 ) on Monday January 19, 2004 @11:05PM (#8028112)
    go to canada download the songs on a service that allows you to share the files or burn them to a cd and then head back to the US.

    Custom Officer: and what is the purpose of your visit today sir.
    Me: to download music
    • Then sell them back in the states for $0.96 per song. For every song purchased, the customer comes out $0.03 ahead, and you're making a cool $0.20 profit!! (Minus gas, food, and lodging.)

  • Great, thanks, the secret's out now! (Score:5, Funny)

    by bc90021 ( 43730 ) * <bc90021 AT bc90021 DOT net> on Monday January 19, 2004 @11:05PM (#8028113) Homepage
    Since now the Canadians are going to realise they should charge more, my tactic of shopping at eBay.ca won't work anymore! Gone are the days I could bid 7/8 of what I'd pay in the US and win!

    Thanks a lot Slashdot!! ;)

  • CD prices are like this too (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Que_Ball ( 44131 ) * on Monday January 19, 2004 @11:07PM (#8028120)
    I have never noticed the pricing in CD's to be flexible with the exchange rate either.

    The pricing trends you mention are more proof that pricing levels are primarily set by "psychological" price points.

    I don't know if these price points actually maximize profit or sales but it seems that most retail goods follow this same model. $199 for consumer electronics, the $999 pc, etc.

    The marketing dept sets the prices.
    • Ever notice that most stuff "As Seen on TV" costs $19.95; and that if it costs more it tends to be multiple payments of $19.95?

      Yes, they've studied the price points and picked the one proven to generate the most sales and that price has nothing to do with the "true value" of the item.

      I recall that when the Rolls Royce Corniche was developed the board got together and figured that their sell point for the car was about $66k, but that they'd actually sell more of them if they "overpriced" it at $99k.

      And th

  • Currency (Score:2, Informative)

    by HappyCitizen ( 742844 )
    I'd think that the online vender's would change price based on currency. I mean, sure they get great extra money from Britan, but they are getting themselves ripped off from Canada. I mean really, Britian is getting ripped off. Someone should have done something by now.

    • We're getting ripped off in Canada, too. There's an extra levy on the purchase of blank CDs.

      • We're getting ripped off in Canada, too. There's an extra levy on the purchase of blank CDs.

        A US-run for a few spools of CDs per year - mildly inconvenient.

        A Canada-run three times a week to buy new music to save a US quarter each time - Really REALLY impractical (and I live not all that far from the border).


        Now, if they start selling music for 99 Pesos, I'll save up for a yearly trip to Mexico. But for a quarter? I don't think so. :-)

  • AllofMP3.com (Score:5, Informative)

    by jea6 ( 117959 ) on Monday January 19, 2004 @11:09PM (#8028131)
    Russia's entry into online music: 1000 tracks, $14.95 per month OR a penny per megabit. Feels slimy but generally agreed to be legit. [allofmp3.com]
    • You are probably about right. However you fail to mention that $15 is 15% of an average monthly salary in Moscow.

    • Re:AllofMP3.com (Score:3, Interesting)

      by man_ls ( 248470 )
      Thanks! I signed up for this.

      $5 for 500 MB. Not bad at all.

      Hope they don't fraud my card.
      • I think they are fairly legit. I and several friends have signed up, and none of us have seen any fraudulent charges (yet). Quite a few others out there on the net have testified to this fact as well, so I think you're relatively safe on that front.

        • Re:AllofMP3.com (Score:3, Informative)

          by athakur999 ( 44340 )
          You can now use Paypal to fund your account there as well, for an extra margin of safety (they won't have your credit card number to run around with).

    • Legit? (Score:3, Informative)

      by JumperCable ( 673155 )
      Feels slimy but generally agreed to be legit.

      What do you mean by legit? Do you mean, they won't steal our credit card numbers (p.s. AmerExpress & Discover allow for 1 time use only credit card numbers), or do you mean that this sale of music is 100% legal in russian and there is nothing the RIAA can do about this (until they pay someone off)?

      From their website under "legal":
      "All the materials in the MediaServices projects are available for distribution through Internet according to license # LS-3

      • Re:Legit? (Score:2, Informative)

        by miTTio ( 24893 )
        While it doesn't asnwer the question about legal in the US of A; from their site:

        All the materials in the MediaServices projects are available for distribution through Internet according to license # LS-3-03-79 of the Russian Multimedia and Internet Society. Under the license terms, MediaServices pays license fees for all the materials subject to the Law of the Russian Federation "On Copyright and Related Rights". All the materials are available solely for personal use and must not be used for further dis

    • The alleged deal with allofmp3.com is the same as with the Spanish WebListen [weblisten.com]. Both operate on the system of compulsory licensing, and have signed deals with the artists/publishers associations in their respective countries. These organisations (ASCAP and BMI in the US) are separate from the record industry associations (RIAA).

      Effectively these services operate like radio stations, and pay over a certain amount, either per track downloaded, or a flat fee negotiated, to these organisations. The general cons

  • How is this news? (Score:3, Informative)

    by jfdawes ( 254678 ) on Monday January 19, 2004 @11:09PM (#8028133)
    How is this news? People do realise that the price for petrol/gas is Europe is much higher than the U.S? That a reasonable dinner in a restaurant in Australia will cost you about $15US, which is really $10US or so? (But you don't get free refills)

    The article doesn't even bother telling us how much a CD costs in the UK or in Canada. Without adding relevant information it's just more noise.

    Here, random link with useful comparison info: some cruddy commercial store [best-cd-price.co.uk]

    • Re:How is this news? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by sPaKr ( 116314 ) on Monday January 19, 2004 @11:32PM (#8028295)
      Well you can download a tank of gas? You see all of these other examples work becouse the shipping costs out way any possible advantage of pricing. That is to say even if you save 3dollars a gallon buying in the US, shipping just one tank of gas cost you more then if you just pay the overcharge in europe. Also most of the overcharge is due to taxes, so if you import the customs agent is going to ask for his tax money. Now the net doesnt really have customes agent. So people in .UK could just buy albums in The US site and download the content directly paying the US price. Cost of distribution is nill on the net, while in meat space it keeps you in line. Similarly we in the US should just use the .CA music as its cheaper then ours. I think the true solution is a single global monetary system. All of these exchange rates just play on old world devliery systems, in a information age they are a relic. To combat this system lets just setup a company in what ever country has the cheapest music, use it to proxy all purchases no matter where the end user lives, thus everyone gets the same lowest price. Sooner (rather then later) the content providers and merchants will figure out they need a single price for everyone in this single information system.

  • allofmp3.com (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Mr. Slippery ( 47854 ) <tms&infamous,net> on Monday January 19, 2004 @11:10PM (#8028141) Homepage

    Allofmp3.com, in Russia, at a penny a MB will get you a whole album for under a buck. And it's easier enough than filesharing to make paying worthwhile. (Legal, too, if you're the type to let laws decide your actions.) Why the hell would I pay 99 cents a song?

    • Allofmp3 is the pure, unadulterated BOMB! (And you can see from my username that I know bombs!)

      You can select which encoder to use (Lame or Blade), the bitrate (VBR,CBR) even --alt-preset-insane! Wow! There goes all my money......
      • You can select which encoder to use (Lame or Blade), the bitrate (VBR,CBR) even --alt-preset-insane! Wow!

        And this from the country we spent 40 years in a cold-war with over communism-vs-capitalism?

        Jeezus. These guys understand "give the consumers what they want and they'll throw money at you" better than any hard-core US company in existance (Go Enron! Go WorldCom! Go Haliburton! Yeah, baby, make a few more bucks exploiting the proletariat so Dubya and Uncle Dick can buy that new winning baseball t

  • What ever may be the price... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by deadmongrel ( 621467 ) <karthik@poobal.net> on Monday January 19, 2004 @11:11PM (#8028152) Homepage
    What ever may be the price I don't see a point in buying crippled music. The cost is relative. The amount of salary that people draw in their respective countries would also differ. BTW did you know that drugs(as in prescription drugs and generic ones ) are cheaper in canada than in the US.The same case is with books. In any case crippled music is worth nothing to me.
    • Yes, but since the music distributed over the internet should ignore area-cost-of-living because distribution isn't local, your counter-examples don't seem to hold weight.

      While salary may differ from region of the world to region of the world, music distribution over the internet doesn't change mechanism. In other words, while gas in one area may be priced higher because of higher cost of distribution, different supply curve, lack of competition, etc, internet distribution shouldn't change because of these
  • puretracks won't let me in the door. Apparently, I got IDed as an american with a mac. Getting 1/2 isn't bad (american on linux)... I wanted to at least browse though...

  • No bargin in Canada... fees fees fees (Score:3, Informative)

    by westcourt_monk ( 516239 ) on Monday January 19, 2004 @11:14PM (#8028169) Homepage Journal
    Sure the exchange rate might give Canadians a bit of a deal but the extra 'fees' on blank media we pay makes it so we pay twice or three times for the music. Recently there have been $25 fees added to ipods and the ilk but downloading was also decided to be legal in Canada but uploading is not. CD-R's went up in price a couple times as well with the money going to the recording industry. Who would be silly enough to pay to download in Canada when the Canadian RIAA already has us paying since everyone already downloads for free according to them.
  • Thank you for visiting Puretracks.com

    Currently our website supports Internet Explorer 5.0 and above on the
    Windows operating system (Win 98SE / ME / 2000 / XP / 2003),
    and is available to Canadian residents only.

    We value our Mac audience, however the Windows Media player for the Mac
    platform is not currently compatible with Microsoft protected audio content.
    Puretracks is currently working to make our service available to Mac users.

  • Even if its Cheap, who woud buy from Walmart? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by joel8x ( 324102 ) on Monday January 19, 2004 @11:16PM (#8028187) Homepage
    I can't imagine why anyone would support Walmart. They are taking a loss just to cut down the competition because they can. Apple takes a loss to sell iPods, WTF is Walmart trying to sell (besides the soul of every American consumer)?

    Hopefully more record labels will join the fight against the RIAA [boycott-riaa.com] like New York's GoKart Records [gokartrecords.com].
    • When it comes to all things online being equal, most people would opt for the cheaper price. That's the whole point of competition after all. If they are selling the same thing, wouldn't you go for the cheaper alternative? People "vote" with their money in market competition.

      Of course, if you are concerned about privacy and other issues, if you care, then you could certainly not buy from Walmart, but I think for most people, cost is more important.

    • I had an open mind and was considering it until I found out it was tied to Windows Media Player.

    • Loss? (Score:3, Interesting)

      by LPetrazickis ( 557952 )
      Excuse my skepticism, but I don't believe for a minute that WalMart is selling at a loss. The bandwidth certainly does not cost $0.88 and pretty much everything else is in imaginary costs that can be adjusted to any value between zero and infinity.
  • Why take the cheaper price if you aren't guaranteed that you'll have total control over your music? I'd rather pay a few more cents (or a dollar more) just to be able to use my music the way I want to.

  • The Inqurier often writes about this... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by SchnauzerGuy ( 647948 ) on Monday January 19, 2004 @11:22PM (#8028221)
    The Inquirer [theinquirer.net] has many articles [theinquirer.net] about how the British [theinquirer.net] and others routinely get shafted [theinquirer.net] due to companies using exchange rates [theinquirer.net] to their own advantage.
  • However htis problem will cease to exist with the appearance of localized online music stores. Where there is a demand - supply is soon to follow.
  • How many songs can you get for a confederate dollar?
  • that the music industry and everybody between the artists and us, the consumers, have been ripping us off, so much so that even on $.99 per song, they have that much room to play with and still make money. I mean, if they can sell at .99 Canadian per song, that just means that whole CD albums should be less than $10. And for all these years, we've seen CD album prices at...$15+?
    Of course, since they are not actually creating landfill destined discs of plastic, with jewel cases and inserts, they are costin
  • Most CDs have about 10 tracks on them. Most CDs (at least here in the US at Best Buy or BMG) Sell for about $9.99. So for .99 a track I get a full CD with a Jewel Case, Liner Notes, Artwork, etc. and I can rip it into any format I want.

    Let me know when I can download .wav files for .25 then downloading music will interest me.

  • Just out of curiosity (Score:5, Interesting)

    by jkauzlar ( 596349 ) * on Monday January 19, 2004 @11:39PM (#8028329) Homepage
    how do they handle CDs with lots of "filler" (like 30 s) or even short tracks (~2.5 m)? The new Best of Guided By Voices CD is one cd with 33 tracks on it. Does that mean its $33 purchased electronically?

  • Ask Your Candidates About Copyright Reform (Score:5, Interesting)

    by MichaelCrawford ( 610140 ) on Monday January 19, 2004 @11:42PM (#8028354) Homepage Journal
    Is it time to get the DMCA repealed? Do you think the RIAA has gone [slashdot.org] too [suedbytheriaa.com] far [laweekly.com]? Do you think it's wrong that Disney can get a law passed to keep Steamboat Willie from passing into the public domain - a law that makes it impossible for anyone to expect a newly copyrighted work pass into the public domain during their lifetime?

    How about making copyright reform a central issue in the upcoming election?

    Very likely most politicians don't know if the DMCA is fit to eat, feel Disney and the RIAA are important campaign contributors whose requests should be given priority, and music downloaders are simple thieves who deserve every bit of punishment they get.

    You can change that. But it's going to take some work. There are enough people sharing music in America - more people than voted for George Bush - that if you get off your collective asses and get politically active, you can get laws passed to get the RIAA off your back.

    In Change the Law [goingware.com], I explain that copyright is not a Constitutional right, like free speech. Instead copyright is allowed (but not required) to serve a useful purpose, a purpose which I feel has long since outlived its usefulness.

    I suggest steps you can take to bring about copyright reform, ranging from speaking out [goingware.com] to practicing civil disobedience [goingware.com].

    One thing I'd like you all to do today is to write your elected representatives [goingware.com] to ask their opinion of the current state of copyright law given its widespread abuse by organizations like the RIAA and MPAA, and to urge them to work towards copyright reform. Let them know your vote will depend on a positive response.

    When you're done writing that letter, write to the other candidates for each office in the upcoming elections, to ask them the same question.

    Sixty million American peer-to-peer file traders have the potential to raise a lot of Hell with the politicians. I want every candidate to be peppered with questions about copyright reform at every campaign stop and in every press interview. I want the repeal of the DMCA to be discussed in the Presidential debates.

    People marched in protest when Dmitry Sklyarov was arrested. Dmitry is free now - but the law under which he was jailed is still on the books.

    If you agree with me that something needs to be done about copyright, I need your help [goingware.com].

    Thank you for your attention.

  • It would be funny if another country got a REALLY good rate on them, perhaps like the Canadians which would allow exportation of these songs. Then, they could find a really cheap way to ship them to the US, burn the songs people request onto CD, and get that CD to that person.

    It would serve those damn Apple bastards right for making a low priced, minimal DRMed, well designed, functional music service.

    Yes, those damn pirates are going to ruin Apple's music service.

    ***The above was entirely a joke, if you di

  • Ack, due to Russian music laws, people using www.allofmp3.com in Russia can pay 1 cent per megabyte of mp3 or ogg or whatever, legally. However, once you download any of that into your American computer, its illegal since the RIAA isn't getting its "proper" share of the money.

  • Two concepts (Score:5, Informative)

    by Knights who say 'INT ( 708612 ) on Monday January 19, 2004 @11:45PM (#8028384) Journal
    The _current_ exchange rates and the _theoretical_ exchange rates are quite different. The current exchange rates are either determined in financial markets or by governments, according to the conditions of the international payment balance.

    The theoretical exchange rate is commonly called a PPP (power of purchase parity) exchange rate, and is evaluated by comparing the cost of simmilar baskets of products in different countries.

    This can be tricky, as seldom the very same product exists all over the world - and if it does, the costs involved can be very different because of relative prices. "The Economist" often publishes the Big Mac Index, which attempts to estimate the theoretical (PPP) exchange rate comparing the prices of Big Macs all over the world - since it's a product that's pretty much the same everywhere and involves the same costs.

    When current exchange rates are unbalanced, there's a strong effect over the importation/exportation ratio. In Brazil, during the mid-90's, US$ 1 was approximately R$ 1, which was totally insane in PPP terms. It was a time during which everyone bought imported goods insanely, and travelled a lot abroad - while people coming to Brazil, specially from other latin american countries, could barely afford a can of coke. That happened because the government wanted to control inflation - and it pretty much worked. But after a while, it lead to a major financial crisis, because there weren't any dollars to pay the importation - exportation balance, and they had to let the dollar rate fluctuate in the financial markets.

    If one was to do a very extensive PPP research that took into comparison prices like this, perhaps some of these distortions will be elliminated. But then again, there's the "just under 1 buck" factor. In any case, this should serve as a big caveat when comparing cost of living in different countries.

  • URL of store in Japan, Mexico, or Italy please? (Score:4, Funny)

    by jayveekay ( 735967 ) on Monday January 19, 2004 @11:47PM (#8028393)
    I'd love to pay 0.99 yen, pesos, or lira per song!
  • The new Fitehouse General Public Music License [fitehouse.com] (PDF) is based on the GPL and requires release of the "source" to the music - the raw, separate tracks, what is actually recorded in the studio but only very rarely made public.

    Fitehouse [fitehouse.com] just released their new EP The Bomb [fitehouse.com] with both tracks available as MP3 download, and one track, the anti-RIAA anthem "Running Scared" licensed under the FGPML.

    The raw studio tracks for Running Scared are also provided as uncompressed WAV files. (Please be nice to their ser

  • No big deal... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Gadzinka ( 256729 ) <rrw@hell.pl> on Monday January 19, 2004 @11:48PM (#8028398) Journal
    It's still nothing compared to consumer electronics prices.

    For a long time people were used to prices a little bit higher in euros than in dollars. The explanation was that it's to compensate for exchange rates while USD was for a couple of years about 1.1EUR or so. Now, that 1EUR is already more than 1.25USD, most vendors didn't even change their prices, and some changed them to ``uniform prices'': e.g. Palm T1, T2 was $399 and 399eur at the time of introduction.

    Now finally new Palm models are priced according to exchange rates. Did enough Europeans buy them via eBay with shipping to Europe? ;)

    But my favourite digicam Canon EOS 300D was still $800 and 1100eur last time I checked -- half as much :( Fscking extortion.

    Robert

  • For those sites that even sell internationally... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by image ( 13487 ) on Monday January 19, 2004 @11:50PM (#8028407) Homepage
    I've been doing an ongoing series of reviews of online music services (iTunes [breakdownindustries.com], Napster 2.0 [breakdownindustries.com], Wal-Mart [breakdownindustries.com], Bleep [breakdownindustries.com], EMusic [breakdownindustries.com], and Audio Lunchbox [breakdownindustries.com] so far), and one thing I've noticed is that a fair number of these sites are entirely unavailable to international customers. Either for DRM reasons or for simple payment processing issues.

    It seems to me that there is a huge untapped market overseas. The traditional distribution mechanisms are even more disadvantaged when compared to online stores, as the cost of transporting physical goods is significantly greater than moving a digital copy. This is just one more area in which the companies that can move the fastest toward the new media stand the most to gain.
  • the only reason that this matters is because of the non physical nature of the product. its not as easy to buy a cd from another country and have it shipped to yours and still save some money. but its no harder to purchase a music file from another country and download it.

    does this mean that we will soon see a dvd type drm that will restrict what region you can play a file in?
  • Just remember, Brits: We Americans have a loooooong memory. If it took us 220+ years to get you back for the tea tax, just imagine what we have planned as a retort for burninating Washington in 1812.

    2 key points:

    • We now have a preemptive doctrine, and our intel clearly shows that the Brits have the bomb.
    • "Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer." An old adage, and who has America kept closer than the good old U.K.?
    Look out, limeys.

    • just imagine what we have planned as a retort for burninating Washington in 1812

      Erm, correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Washington attacked in response to the burning of the Canadian Parliament by US forces, during their first abortive attempt at imperialism?

  • Someone wake me up when the songs are down to .99 YEN a piece. I think thats a good rate :).
  • I know the article is on exchange rates, but there is a site doing (or claiming to do) dynamic pricing based on demand.

    www.musicrebellion.com [musicrebellion.com]

    Obligatory disclaimer: I have no connection to musicrebellion.com. I just bought a dozen albums from them during their .10 / track promotion.

    The basic idea is that popular songs will rise in price, while less popular songs will decrease in price. To start things off they had a promotion where all tracks were .10 (albeit almost all songs are in crippled WMA format with limited burning capabilities). News.com.com story here [com.com].

    The thing that bugged me about Music Rebellion is that after the promotion ended everything immediately jumped to 90-odd cents.

    I disagree strongly with that, as they have now given me little incentive to use them over iTunes. I'm willing to give them my business for some of the obscure Christian music I listen to if it's dynamically priced at 20-35 cents per track. Otherwise I'll save the WMA hassle and go iTunes. Unfortunately, the news.com article listed a floor of 50-75 cents per song (citing wholesale cost).

    What I did like about them is that their customer service was responsive (some licenses didn't download correctly), and their selection was comparable to Apple's. They also seem to have some indie music promotion.

    However, iTunes is so well designed (not relying on MSIE for downloads or WMP for burning) that I haven't had to use their customer service.

    - Neil Wehneman

  • Information Economics (Score:3, Insightful)

    by dyoo78 ( 663988 ) on Tuesday January 20, 2004 @12:42AM (#8028736)
    The author is using the lense of exchange rates to say that Candians are getting music cheaper.

    This is wrong for two reasons. First, the advent of the Internet and its subsequent use as a distribution method of music has made music an information good. All music is charged at a monopoly price because the price at which music is sold is above the marginal cost of production.

    Second, because all music is priced at a monopoly price, what is a "bargain" or "being ripped-off" is moot. We are all being "ripped-off" when we purchase music because we're paying above the marginal cost of production.

    Yet the problem with information goods is that information is expensive to make and easy to deliver.

    The story about price differences between countries is not a story about exchange rates, nor a story about getting ripped-off or getting bargain prices. It's a story about price discrimination.

    In monopolies, price discrimination is good because it allows buyers to pay for the good at their respective reservation price. For instance, everyone needs water piped to their homes for say, $50 a month. The monopoly must charge that price for everyone and can't price discriminate (e.g. charge a different price for everyone). This type of monopoly is inefficient because those that can't afford $50 go without water, although the marginal cost to give that person who can't afford water is nill. Yet with the advent of digital technologies, global distribution and subsequent pricing has changed. Companies that want to sell music to different markets according to that particular market level of income can do so.

    Compare music pricing to regional encoding and DVD pricing. It's the same story.

  • MusicRebellion.com? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by teetam ( 584150 ) on Tuesday January 20, 2004 @12:44AM (#8028747) Homepage
    Anyone tried musicrebellion.com [musicrebellion.com]? Most songs are only 10 cents and the price goes up with demand. I think that is a neat idea, making popular music slightly costlier than niche music. Why should there be a flat rate?

    • Re:MusicRebellion.com? (Score:3, Informative)

      by Phroggy ( 441 ) *
      I just looked at Arcanum by Acoustic Alchemy (it was near the top alphabetically and I've liked what I've heard of the group before); each track is $0.90 and the album is $8.60. iTMS is $0.99/track and $9.99/album, so that's $1.39 cheaper, but as another poster complained, it's WMA.

      Be the first to rate this album!

      So um, the price goes up with demand?

  • This shows how much we are being ripped off (Score:3, Insightful)

    by iamacat ( 583406 ) on Tuesday January 20, 2004 @12:58AM (#8028815)
    If record companies were really competitive, CD prices would be close to the cost of production (including salary of musician and others, not just pressing plastic of course). In fact, they would often sell below cost, hoping to make it up with some especially popular albums later and we should see a big label go bankrupt once in a while.

    In that case, if a label can make ends meet by charging $0.99CDN, they wouldn't charge a euro for the same song in UK, lest the competitors beat them on price. We would also see $0.10 loss leaders with decent music who hope to grab the market share and then somehow raise the price and/or lower costs.

    Nothing more to say except hope that smaller labels take hold and make some music that is worth itds price.

  • Suggestion to all us Yanks (Score:3, Interesting)

    by guamman ( 527778 ) on Tuesday January 20, 2004 @01:09AM (#8028865)
    Why not use a Canadian proxy server that will let you download music from puretracks.com. There are lots of free, public proxy servers with Canadian ip addresses.

  • Arbitrage Situation (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Tazzy531 ( 456079 ) on Tuesday January 20, 2004 @01:19AM (#8028908) Homepage
    If only the trading of music files were a liquid market. This would be a perfect arbitrage situation. Basically, buy it from one country at a cheaper rate [relative to another country's rate] and sell it there and make the profit. I mean, the profit in Foreign Exchange market works are fractions of a cent, a difference of 20 cents in some cases for music file would be an enormous take on the arbitrage.

    argh..this is how I know I've spent too much time working in this industry...

  • Online music isn't the only thing ... (Score:3, Informative)

    by deek ( 22697 ) * on Tuesday January 20, 2004 @02:23AM (#8029195) Homepage Journal

    I'm in the market for a digital camera. I've been looking at the Sony F828, but the retail price here in Australia is $2599. In the US, it's $999. Converted to $AUS, that's $1315. That's almost half price!!

    Even factoring in postage and import duty, the price will only rise another $200. The price differential is really shocking. The only downside to ordering from the US direct, is the warranty isn't valid here. I'd have to ship it back to the US to get it fixed.

    dave

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