Better Believe It; iTunes Prices Go Wack

Remember early in January when Apple announced that all songs will be DRM-Free? Well that did come with a catch. They also announced that in April of 2009, the songs on iTunes “will be available at Three Price Points”. This news should not come as too much of a surprise, but it is. As a person who still purchases music from iTunes, I’m a little bit confused. I don’t know if I’ll still be purchasing from iTunes or if I’ll switch to a different music provider. itunes-logo The Apple press release from January describes the point system, saying that songs on iTunes “will be available at one of three price points: 69 cents, 99 cents and $1.29, with most albums still priced at $9.99.” It’s great that they’re still offering music at 99 cents and 69 cents, but what about this $1.29? I’m sure the price increase applies mainly to the new releases. There have been mixed feelings about this switch. Some people don’t care, while other are looking into alternatives for their music needs. The younger generation that gets music from sources like Limewire, P2P, and torrents probably don’t care. For music purchasers, there are still options. We’ll just have to see how users react to these changes.

Amazon is a great source for music and they are still offering individual mp3’s for 99 cents a piece. Here is a look at Amazon’s top downloaded tracks and pricing:

iTunes competitors are definitely jumping at this opportunity to make a little more business. Sure emusic has been around for a while, but it’s still a great music buying alternative.