Jobs Resists Music Industry Pressure

Drew writes "Steve Jobs is opposed to raising the price of online music sales, calling the music industry greedy, and implying that price increases will bring about more piracy." From the article: "It may not seem like it, but it has been more than two years since the launch of the iTunes Music Store, and that alone has the music industry brimming with hopes for price-adjustments. They also don't buy Jobs' argument that a price increase will result in more piracy, but probably not for the reasons we might assume. I've long been of the conviction that piracy is not nearly as large of a problem as the RIAA makes it out to be." Also covered at Macworld.

Instead of raising rates..

[squison]

Maybe they could cut costs..but, oh, I don't know.. hiring less lawyers to sue their customers.

I'm with you, Steve

[bgfay]

In fact, let's really show those greedy bastards and set the per song price of an iTunes download to twenty-five cents! That way, downloading an album would actually be cheaper than buying the jewel box.

You go, Steve!

Um, he is talking about lowering the prices, isn't he?

Oh.

Never mind.

Pressure from Pepsi?

[kosibar]

I never bought a song on iTunes - I've gotten them all for free with Pepsi caps.

I don't usually drink Pepsi, but when I see those yellow caps, I tip the bottles, find a winner, then get a Pepsi (instead of the Coke I would buy otherwise) and get my free song.

So I think this is in response to pressure from Pepsi. If you pay more per song, you'll be more likely to buy a Pepsi for a chance to win a free download.

It's a conspiracy, I tell you!

Re:God bless Jobs...

[Doc Ri]

Money makes every person on the planet greedy

Mr. Jobs, certainly, is immune.

"Hey, what do with this golden goose?"

[Cr0w T. Trollbot]

"What does it do?"

"It lays golden eggs."

"Do we own the goose?"

"No, but we get half the eggs as long as the goose uses our nest."

"We ain't got to do nuthin' and we still get half the eggs?"

"Yep."

"But we don't own the goose."

"Nope."

"I say we kill it!"

- Crow T. Trollbot

He left out

[MECC]

"calling the music industry greedy"
Shitheads from the end of that sentence...

Re:Instead of raising rates..

[Smidge204]

Don't be silly! Their legal department probably has a better cost/earning ratio than the rest of their operation!

=Smidge=

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Abroad...

[Ingolfke]

There are a lot of great American musicians putting out music, both past and present. Here's a short list to get you started... hopefully you've heard of one or two of them.

• The Beatles
• Led Zepplin
• Franz Ferdinand
• Can
• Architecture in Helsinki
• Bjork
• Lucciano Pavorati

The list goes on and on dude... all great musicians... all 100% American!

Re:Pressure from Pepsi?

[Anonymous Coward]

Sculley's Revenge?

Re:No worries.

[Dachannien]

Jobs is in a great position.

Actually, he has the RIAA in a great position. Namely, over a barrel.

Re:The issue, as always, isn't about money

[ZipR]

You're right -- Shatner's "Common People" does kick ass.

Re:A different approach to the online music market

[Anonymous Coward]

...the fact that Russia's legal system with regards to copyright is all over the map.

Nono, it's still in Russia, with the rest of the Russian legal system.

Re:Greed.

[sammy baby]

So basically, he's locking everyone out and setting Apple up to be the biggest middle man in the history of middle men, with no actual manufacturing costs needed for content distribution. Cha-ching!

Right. When you take into account the miniscule cost of his operation... why, it's like he's positively robbing us blind, right?

It costs Apple real dollars to provide the hosting service that delivers that digital file to you, and to write the sophisticated software that delivers it... "Most of the money goes to the music companies," admitted Jobs. "We would like to break even/make a little bit of money but it's not a money maker," he said, candidly. So now we have it on record: the music store is a loss leader. Jobs said Apple would pay its dues to the RIAA, then seek to make money where it could, from its line of hardware accessories.
- The Register [theregister.co.uk]

Rapacious bastard. Making a profit off the iPod - the nerve!

Conveniently enough, he *does* manufacture the iPod you need to listen to stuff which incurs the same kind of costs the record companies have, making a profit here as well.

Yes! One has to wonder what will happen to his "you must buy an iPod to listen to the music we sell!" tactic when people figure out that they can listen to the songs right on their computers, or even burn them to CDs.

For the sake of Apple, and all the poor children in Cupertino, we can only help that the secret never gets out.

Re:Instead of raising rates..

[elbenito69]

I think the whole music industry needs a shaking up, and a Apple + Apple thing could be the key.

They could call it the Apple ][ !

Re:Abroad...

[Anonymous Coward]

Boy, nothing gets by you.

At $1 per year in salary

[joeflies]

He wouldn't be able to buy an iTunes song on what he makes if the price goes up!

Re:this is bad

[Widowwolf]

and now you cant mod him troll because you posted in this topic..now i am modding you off topic....doh!

Re:A different approach to the online music market

[Woy]

"This is the world's smallest violin playing for the RIAA."

Don't forget to grab the cover art:

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