By Lisa DiCarlucci
As a true music lover, I’ve always felt it to be important that I purchase my music legally. It seemed like the right thing to do out of respect for the artists, the record labels and the music industry as a whole. I figured that if I were a music artist, I would want my fans to support me not only emotionally, but economically as well. Doing so never bothered me either because iTunes was so convenient and reasonable at 99 cents per song. Needless to say, I was disappointed when I logged onto Facebook the other day and my friend Kevin’s status informed me that iTunes had raised their price. Upon personal investigation of the iTunes store I found that the most popular, new, hit songs, along with the most classic songs have been raised to the price of $1.29.
The only information about the changes I found on the iTunes store page was a small box mixed in with the free song of the week and similar offers. When I clicked on it, a message popped up which read:
“All music on the iTunes store is now 100 percent iTunes plus. That means all songs are available in our highest quality 256 kbps AAC encoding making for a stellar sound that is virtually indistinguishable from the original recordings. And of course, iTunes plus is always DRM free.”
It continued to explain that songs would now vary in price from 69 cents, 99 cents, and $1.29. It also said that I could upgrade my current music which I had purchased off of iTunes. When I clicked that option, iTunes informed me that for the “special offer” price of $79.50 I could upgrade my 300 previously purchased songs to iTunes plus.
Apple’s explanation for the price increase seems to be a difference in quality; that somehow, the “plus” songs are worth a 30 cent jump. Call it my untrained ear or lack of knowledge about audio engineering, but I compared the sound of the 99 cents songs to the $1.29 songs and I couldn’t hear a single difference. To be completely honest, even if I did hear a distinguishable difference, I doubt I would pay the extra 30 cents. My 99 cents songs have been very good to me these past years and I’m quite happy with them they way they are.
Let’s face it, the record companies are not doing well. The economy is bad and album sales continuously get worse because of the growth of digital music for the convenience and the reasonable pricing. My issue is that record companies are not the only ones suffering and it’s certainly not the celebrities who are poor. I can’t feel bad for these people when families are starving because of this recession. This price increase is frankly, just selfish.
The most frustrating part is that people who buy music legally with iTunes make a conscious choice to do so. The reality is that anyone can download their music illegally just as conveniently. Why would Apple want to punish the people who support them? Do they honestly think that everyone will just pay more money? Not in this economy. I have already cut back on my purchases of the 99 cents variety so a raised price is simply out of the question. Apple is only going to hurt themselves in the end because not only will people simply get their music illegally, but other companies like amazon.com and walmart.com offers the same music for 99 cents and in some cases for even less.
Lisa DiCarlucci is a sophomore print journalism student. You may e-mail her at [email protected].