Music Labels May Seek Higher Download Prices

punxking writes "Some of the big music labels are now clamoring to raise prices for digital music downloads. From the article: 'Music industry executives said introductory wholesale prices for digital tracks had been set low to stimulate demand for online music sales but the success of Apple's music store had prompted concern that they may now be too low.'" Relatedly, the BBC is reporting that iTunes is under investigation in Britain for charging disparities between the UK and the European continent.

Dupe City

[blackmonday]

This is getting ridiculous. Next article, please.

Slashdot raising subscription rates!

[garcia]

Slashdot and OSDN are clamoring to raise subscription rates!

In a move that the OSDN bean-counters believe will give Slashdot and OSDN more cash on hand, Slashdot.org is announcing that they are raising subscription rates to $5.25 for 1000 pages of ad-free* viewing.

More and more frequently Slashdot has been giving its readers the opportunity to read day old news AGAIN! The editors of the site claim that this is part of their overall marketing plan:

Rob Malda (aka CmdrTaco) was quoted in the NYT (vampire sucking required) as saying, "well we give you TWICE the news in two days so we thought it was only right that our subscribers pay a little bit extra!"

Zonk was quoted as saying, "well we give you TWICE the news in two days so we thought it was only right that our subscribers pay a little bit extra!"

While Slashdot does have an e-mail link on their site to allow Slashdot subscribers to report these duplicates to the "Editor on Duty" the editors have admitted in secret taped conversations (on IRC) that the email address is bunk and goes to /dev/null... "How are we to justify raising subscription rates if the readers weren't getting the same old shit twice?"

* - ad-free only refers to banner ads, not posts to the main page that are made to appear as "stories" when they are in all actuality advertisements (i.e. iPods)

higher prices again?

[justforaday]

I thought they were just talking about doing this a few days ago...Greedy bastards...sheesh!

Re:Dupe City

[Skye16]

I concur. I think I need a replacement for Slashdot.

You're a bastard if you don't pay out the ass!

[Nintenfreak]

All these popular artists's money bins are getting low. Any lower and they'll break their necks by diving in.

Ha!

[Anonymous Coward]

Good luck pushing Wal*Mart. They've never bowed to a supplier. If they want to sell digital music at 25-cents a track, the music industry can just take it in the rear.

dupe dupe dupe

[aendeuryu]

dupe dupe dupe
they duped the URL (dupe dupe)
they duped the URL (dupe dupe)
they duped the URL...

As I walk though
Slashdot's world
Nothing can stop
These dupes of URLs...

etc. etc.

Do you?

[AtariAmarok]

Do you want to submit this one tomorrow and make it 3 days in a row? Or should I do it?

Can you say...

[LordPhantom]

... Dupe? Perhaps they should start charging more so they can pay EDITORS to FILTER SUBMISSIONS..... oh wait....

Stealing music is bad, mkay?

[Thud457]

Higher prices than "your immortal soul"?!!!! That's ridiculous!

Oh, wait, there's legitmate places to download music online from?!!!

Primitive peoples often think that you're stealing their soul when you photograph them.

I make no guarentee of this post's relevancy to anything.

Aw hell... dupe reply

[the_skywise]

Well they have to raise prices!

Because the cost of manufacturing has...

Er... Because they have to hire more employees to handle the purchasing load...

Er... Because the Britney Spears needs a new swimming pool for her poodle... yeah!

Isn't it time we just declare the RIAA a monopoly and start regulating it because, obviously, there is no competition.

(I'm reminded of that montage scene in Real Genius where more and more people don't show up to class and instead have tape recorders to record the lecture... eventually the professor stops coming to class and just has a tape to play to the tape recorders...)

Re:Dupe City

[dcarey]

Shoot, as long as slashdot is the de facto source for redundancy, how about we make a poll for the subject:

Slashdot poll: Which article is better?
1)iTunes downloads prices increasing article referenced here (yesterday) [slashdot.org]
2)iTunes downloads prices increasing article referenced here (today's) [slashdot.org]
3)the iTunes article dupe we'll see tomorrow.
4) the iTunes article for when the prices actually change
5) dupe slashdot article for #4
6) dupe slashdot article for #4 AND #5.

Come on guys. I know you can get on the same page.

Re:Dupe City

[lucabrasi999]

Next article, please.

I already saw the next article. It says something about Bill Gates being awarded British Knighthood.

Re:Costs?

[justforaday]

One of the bennes is that he sees stories before they are actually published for the unwashed masses.

I'm not a subscriber and I saw this story before it was posted... : p

Applesoft?

[Renaissance 2K]

The music industry loses all credibility the moment it says "Apple may become too powerful."

Oh, so now Apple is trying to take over the world?

What next? The Salvation Army?

Re:Dupe City

[tomhudson]

Of course it's a dupe - this gives us all a second chance to post links to all sorts of torrent sites [tt] that still work ... just in case you missed them yesterday, or last week, or in January.

And the people who really want to karma whore can cut-n-paste the highest-rated articles from yesterday (or the lowest-rated if you're into trolling).

Maybe someone should just write a script that automatically posts ...

THIS IS A DUPE
This dupe story has been brought to you by the slushdot editors.
Our motto: We don't do no stinking editing. This is the NEW new economy.
If you complain too much, we'll bring back Michael Sims ... beatches!

... at the top of every story - it would be right most of the time.

Well, that explains a LOT!

[Anita Coney]

The music industry thinks that because iTunes is a success, the prices must be too low. That explains why CDs sales are down. Every time people start buying them, the music industry raises prices. The music industry seems afraid of success, every time it gets close, they squash it.

Re:$0.99 too low?

[Alien Being]

The bits are gold plated for high fidelity.

Re:Pete and Repeat where in a boat.....

[99BottlesOfBeerInMyF]

wonder if this push for a price increase is to put a dampner on the existing on-line players..

Dampner is not a word in the English language. Damper is a word, as is dampener. A damper reduces oscillation. A dampener makes something moist. Some router vendors have introduced a feature called route flap damping. Other router vendors have introduced the rather silly route flap dampening. I really wish large companies would hire a few editors to review their products. Just FYI.

Re:Heroine or heroin?

[tomhudson]

I think he really did mean the "heroine" model ... you know, about how hookers are better than drugs because they can always wash their crack and resell it.

this is what the music companies are doing with degraded MP3s at a higher cost per song than the original album.

Re:Dupe City

[sulli]

Let me recommend Slashdot [slashdot.org]

Re:Ha!

[e2d2]

Yeah but Wal*Mart would rather get their music from China anyway.

Re:Pretty soon...

[Reignking]

If that were to happen, would we be able to slashdot slashdot?

Who's your daddy

[fulldecent]

I kind of like Walmart's discussions with the media industry a little better:

Walmart: I think it's time you started selling me CD's for under $10
Labels: That's some bullshit
Walmart: I retail 4% of the GNP, if I stop selling CD's, you die
Label: Ulth... fine, but-
Walmart: But what?
Label: ...um but nothing

Re:Applesoft?

[Anonymous Coward]

It takes a lot to be simultaneously dying for 20 years, and taking over the worldat the same time...

Re:In other words

[Tongo]

I don't come here for variety, I come here for redundancy.

Now, let's be fair

[Safety Cap]

I would point you to Slashdot Editor Training [slashdot.org], where all Editors learn how to avoid dupes, perform thorough spell- and fact-checking, and (best of all) write well-crafted, bug-free code.

Re:Costs?

[QMO]

The real reason they want to charge more is that it will increase the market value of piracy, thus the marketing value of piracy, but not substantially increase what they really lose from piracy.

Example of their current arithmetic:
1,000,000 songs at $0.50 each = $500,000

but, if they charge more it suddnly becomes:
1,000,000 songs at $0.75 each = $750,000

Oh, no! Piracy has just gone up 50%!

Just a thought.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Is the Slashdot Shuffle Playing Favorites?

[saddino]

saddino [slashdot.org] writes "Steven Levy at Newsweek is reporting that Slashdot seems to favor certain stories for dupes [slashdot.org]. Is Slashdot receiving kickbacks to promote certain companies? Slashdot denies it, of course, and Levy had the good sense to ask a mathematician [discoverengineering.org] and a cryptographer [cherrycorp.com] who explained it's probably just humans finding patterns where there are none [slashdot.org]."

Re:Applesoft?

[rob_squared]

"What's next? The Salvation Army?"

Well, I have heard about them having a militant wing...

Re:In other words

[AtariAmarok]

"I don't come here for variety, I come here for redundancy."

I don't come here for variety, I come here for redundancy.

Re:Dupe City

[maxwell demon]

I've just discovered that there's a site which looks just like slashdot at http://nodupes.slashdot.org [slashdot.org]. Given the name, maybe they don't have dupes.

Look at it this way

[serutan]

Think of the dupe as a remake of the original "classic" post.

Re:Dupe posts

[fname]

Seems appropriate that it's from the "they're-never-going-to-get-it dept." The editor should get a +1 Unintentionally Funny for his so-sad-it's-funny quip.

Re:In other words

[deeblite]

I don't come here for variety, I come here for redundancy!

Re:In other words

[commodoresloat]

Ditto!

Re:Dupe City

[Kazymyr]

RAIS: Redundant Array of Irrelevant Stories

Re:Dupe posts

[poot_rootbeer]

It's a shame that all these dupe posts are getting modded down. It's about time the Slashdot editors actually see what a mess Slashdot has become. They seem to post a dupe every day now.

Please, stop modding those posts down. This duplicate posting must stop.