High prices and digital rights management incompatibility are slowing the take-up of online music services in the United Kingdom, according to analyst firm IDC.
Jason Armitage, senior research analyst at IDC's European consumer devices unit, said that despite the rapid increase in the number of iTunes-style stores, the United Kingdom has yet to benefit from more choices or cheaper pricing.
"In spite of the mounting competition among suppliers, pricing for subscriptions, albums and individual tracks remains stubbornly high," he wrote in a research note. "Only a handful of subscription services are currently available in the U.K., offering consumers a limited range of packages at steep monthly prices."
Armitage said part of the problem is that record labels aren't passing on the savings from selling music in digital format to their customers.
"Given the savings in distribution and packaging costs, pay-per-download services can also afford to get a lot cheaper. The first significant moves have been evident in album pricing, a format that has proven unpopular with downloaders. In the U.K., online albums could be purchased at a 30 percent to 45 percent discount to their CD equivalents in 2005," he wrote.
It's a troubling issue for Apple Computer CEO Steve Jobs, the man behind No. 1 online music store iTunes. Speaking at Apple Expo earlier this month, he said Web song shops are resisting pressure from record labels to increase prices.
"Record companies make more money on iTunes than they do on CDs," Jobs said. "If they want to raise prices on iTunes, it just means they're getting a little greedy--consumers won't like that. It will just be a message to consumers to go back to piracy, and that's not good. If the price goes up a lot, they'll go back to piracy, and everybody loses."
IDC's Armitage said online music stores also need to improve their user experience--both pricing and music player compatibility--to get consumers excited about buying music again.
"Services are improving, but buying music online can be an experience devoid of the pleasures of the record store," he said. "Problems in playing backtracks on portable audio players escalate, as users discover downloaded tracks are not compatible with their devices. For customers choosing which songs to download, the logic that leads to price discrepancies between newly released tracks can be bewildering."
The incompatibility war among different portable music players and video devices has attracted criticism from several groups, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
"Interoperability problems look set to remain long-term features of online music," Armitage said. "Consumers already have existing alternatives--in the form of physical media and free music services--that will continue as popular methods for acquiring digital music (so) usage of paid music services will remain confined to a minority of consumers in the next few years."
so the article is saying that even if you download a song there is no guarantee that it will work on your music player! this stinks of DRM. why don't they just remove all that BS and just let consumers enjoy their music? like i've said before, i will always refuse to buy online music, because of the lower quality and the DRM. i'd rather buy a CD and rip it in .ogg format and listen to it on my PC. hell, if i get a player that supports .ogg then i'll be set for life! :D
so the article is saying that even if you download a song there is no guarantee that it will work on your music player! this stinks of DRM. why don't they just remove all that BS and just let consumers enjoy their music? like i've said before, i will always refuse to buy online music, because of the lower quality and the DRM. i'd rather buy a CD and rip it in .ogg format and listen to it on my PC. hell, if i get a player that supports .ogg then i'll be set for life! :D
Mr. Warner and the Record Labels seem to have forgotten their Enco 101: Price Elasticity.
I other words, Mr. Warner and the Labels are losing No Money with lower prices. They are making it up in volume and volumn. If there were a shortage of CD's for sale, then a price increase might be justified. As Apple has considerable bandwidth to handle the load, no price increase is required.
Now, is a critical stage in music downloading, Apple is selling IPods at very competitive prices, esp. the flash memory based products, so they are doing their part to grow the market. Were the labels to increase prices now, that would probably kill the market and any remaining GOODWILL they have earned with the ease of use and access to the ITunes music store.
But, of course, in a free society, business people are free to royally screw up good ideas.
Mr. Warner and the Record Labels seem to have forgotten their Enco 101: Price Elasticity.
I other words, Mr. Warner and the Labels are losing No Money with lower prices. They are making it up in volume and volumn. If there were a shortage of CD's for sale, then a price increase might be justified. As Apple has considerable bandwidth to handle the load, no price increase is required.
Now, is a critical stage in music downloading, Apple is selling IPods at very competitive prices, esp. the flash memory based products, so they are doing their part to grow the market. Were the labels to increase prices now, that would probably kill the market and any remaining GOODWILL they have earned with the ease of use and access to the ITunes music store.
But, of course, in a free society, business people are free to royally screw up good ideas.
"Armitage said part of the problem is that record labels aren't passing on the savings from selling music in digital format to their customers. Given the savings in distribution and packaging costs, pay-per-download services can also afford to get a lot cheaper. Record companies make more money on iTunes than they do on CDs"
And how do you explain this? Well the industry says the higher perceived value and convenience factor makes up for it. The same twisted logic they used to justify a CD costing more than a tape or LP, even though they were cheaper to make.
Of course the consumers recognize this as simple GREED. It used to be when production costs dropped, savings were passed to consumers, consumers bought more, the economy grew and everyone won. The entertainment industry seems to think consumers are locked into their model and will bear whatever they are given. They use excessive legislation, lawsuits and threats to legitimate companies (BitTorrent et all) to enforce their skewed take on reality.
Is it any wonder P2P still thrives?
And let's not even get into the topic of incompatibility with various players. With CDs I bought music and it played on whatever CD player I used. Now the industry wants to control harware as well leading to the need to purchase the same song multiple times... (so they don't lose revenue on piracy they say!)
"Armitage said part of the problem is that record labels aren't passing on the savings from selling music in digital format to their customers. Given the savings in distribution and packaging costs, pay-per-download services can also afford to get a lot cheaper. Record companies make more money on iTunes than they do on CDs"
And how do you explain this? Well the industry says the higher perceived value and convenience factor makes up for it. The same twisted logic they used to justify a CD costing more than a tape or LP, even though they were cheaper to make.
Of course the consumers recognize this as simple GREED. It used to be when production costs dropped, savings were passed to consumers, consumers bought more, the economy grew and everyone won. The entertainment industry seems to think consumers are locked into their model and will bear whatever they are given. They use excessive legislation, lawsuits and threats to legitimate companies (BitTorrent et all) to enforce their skewed take on reality.
Is it any wonder P2P still thrives?
And let's not even get into the topic of incompatibility with various players. With CDs I bought music and it played on whatever CD player I used. Now the industry wants to control harware as well leading to the need to purchase the same song multiple times... (so they don't lose revenue on piracy they say!)
Web giant is spending $120 million to beef up its Mountain View, Calif., headquarters, according to filings with the city reviewed by the San Jose Mercury News.
The Samsung Galaxy Mini 2 S6500 could make its debut at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona later this month, according to a leaked promotional image.
MIT creates a simulation to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Spacewar. A relic of the early days of minicomputers, it was one of the first computer video games and set the stage for many others, including Asteroids.
Save on Sony HDTVs. Free shipping.
I other words, Mr. Warner and the Labels are losing No Money with lower prices. They are making it up in volume and volumn. If there were a shortage of CD's for sale, then a price increase might be justified. As Apple has considerable bandwidth to handle the load, no price increase is required.
Now, is a critical stage in music downloading, Apple is selling IPods at very competitive prices, esp. the flash memory based products, so they are doing their part to grow the market. Were the labels to increase prices now, that would probably kill the market and any remaining GOODWILL they have earned with the ease of use and access to the ITunes music store.
But, of course, in a free society, business people are free to royally screw up good ideas.
I other words, Mr. Warner and the Labels are losing No Money with lower prices. They are making it up in volume and volumn. If there were a shortage of CD's for sale, then a price increase might be justified. As Apple has considerable bandwidth to handle the load, no price increase is required.
Now, is a critical stage in music downloading, Apple is selling IPods at very competitive prices, esp. the flash memory based products, so they are doing their part to grow the market. Were the labels to increase prices now, that would probably kill the market and any remaining GOODWILL they have earned with the ease of use and access to the ITunes music store.
But, of course, in a free society, business people are free to royally screw up good ideas.
Given the savings in distribution and packaging costs, pay-per-download services can also afford to get a lot cheaper.
Record companies make more money on iTunes than they do on CDs"
And how do you explain this? Well the industry says the higher perceived value and convenience factor makes up for it. The same twisted logic they used to justify a CD costing more than a tape or LP, even though they were cheaper to make.
Of course the consumers recognize this as simple GREED. It used to be when production costs dropped, savings were passed to consumers, consumers bought more, the economy grew and everyone won. The entertainment industry seems to think consumers are locked into their model and will bear whatever they are given. They use excessive legislation, lawsuits and threats to legitimate companies (BitTorrent et all) to enforce their skewed take on reality.
Is it any wonder P2P still thrives?
And let's not even get into the topic of incompatibility with various players. With CDs I bought music and it played on whatever CD player I used. Now the industry wants to control harware as well leading to the need to purchase the same song multiple times... (so they don't lose revenue on piracy they say!)
Nope, none for me, thanks.
Given the savings in distribution and packaging costs, pay-per-download services can also afford to get a lot cheaper.
Record companies make more money on iTunes than they do on CDs"
And how do you explain this? Well the industry says the higher perceived value and convenience factor makes up for it. The same twisted logic they used to justify a CD costing more than a tape or LP, even though they were cheaper to make.
Of course the consumers recognize this as simple GREED. It used to be when production costs dropped, savings were passed to consumers, consumers bought more, the economy grew and everyone won. The entertainment industry seems to think consumers are locked into their model and will bear whatever they are given. They use excessive legislation, lawsuits and threats to legitimate companies (BitTorrent et all) to enforce their skewed take on reality.
Is it any wonder P2P still thrives?
And let's not even get into the topic of incompatibility with various players. With CDs I bought music and it played on whatever CD player I used. Now the industry wants to control harware as well leading to the need to purchase the same song multiple times... (so they don't lose revenue on piracy they say!)
Nope, none for me, thanks.