Apple iTunes to End Flat Fee Pricing?

MdntToker writes "According the Forbes, EMI has an understanding with Apple that flat fee pricing will end within the next 12 months, and more popular songs will be priced higher than 99c, while lesser known acts will be priced lower than 99c." From the article: "Label executives have made multiple arguments for flexible pricing. They argue, for instance, that almost all retail businesses have different price points for different products. But they are particularly interested in boosting their revenue from digital music sales, which aided by the sale of mobile phone ringtones, are increasing but not quickly enough to replace the continuing drops in compact disc sales. EMI said today that digital sales, made up 4.9% of the company's sales in the last six months, up from 2.1% a year ago." We've previously reported on this story.

End Result?

[Shads]

... I go back to snail mailing money to the artists and downloading the mp3. Shrug.

Good news

[generic-man]

According to Slashdot, popular music sucks. As a result, non-sucky music will cost less than it does today. This is good.

"According to EMI"

[ErikTheRed]

Yeah, and I'm sure their opinion is 100% pure and unbisased. This could very well be a ploy to pressure Apple into complying. Also, even if it is true, Steve Jobs will send them packing for pre-announcing it.

The RIAA Strikes Back

[KodeJockey]

As part of the deal, Sony has agreed to include malicious code that will open gaping security holes on your devices with the higher-priced downloads.

Re:The "Flexible" Elevator - Going Up?

[Anonymous Coward]

Kind of like an adjustable rate mortgage.

Re:Good news

[AKAImBatman]

Don't worry about that. The music companies will soon be implementing a new system to assist you in getting the lowest price! Here's how it works:

Every song in the system will be ordered by the number of downloads it had last month. The rank will then be sorted in reverse. The position of the music on that list will be its price. Therefore, Britney Spears will cost only a penny, while Simon and Garfunkel will cost $300! See? Now you can get Britney Spears for cheaper! Aren't you HAPPY!

Great idea!

[sseaman]

And do I make that check out to "50 Cent" or "Fiddy Cent"?

More popular = more expensive?

[ortholattice]

The law of supply and demand in action, I guess... It would be a shame for them to run out of the more popular songs, so they price them higher to keep the demand lower, right?

Apple employees say no

[fishmasta]

I was talking with a guy that works at the iTMS today and he said that there are no plans for that, and Steve's still strongly opposed.

Re:Never Mind

[Trepalium]

You must be new here? This is slashdot, after all.

Re:Mod the fuck up.

[jav1231]

Yeah, this could be a "Let's put the word out that we think Jobs is going to cave because the arguments all make sense then he'll be relatively compelled to save face." Jobs could as easily say, "Dude! We had this discussion. Remember when I said, 'Go pound sand up your ass?' we were talking about this!"

Awesome!

[oboreruhito]

The crap songs I don't buy will subsidize my purchases! JOBS IS GENIUS

formula pseudo-code

[first_tracks]

function GetPrice($song)
{ //first time?
    $total_downloads = GetTotalDownloads($song);
    if ($total_downloads == 0)
    {
        $price = 1.00;
        return $price;
    } //increment price by one penny per song d/l in past hour. capped.
    $price = 0.10;
    $num_downloads = GetNumDownloadsInPastHour($song);
    $price += $num_downloads;
    if ($price > $k_CAP) {$price = $k_CAP;}
    return $price;

}

Re:So the model becomes ever more like...

[Anonymous Coward]

No, but I'm not convinced they get any money of the money from the sale of a CD, either.