It's very clear that within the last year or so, there have been fewer digital downloads of songs due to streaming gradually becoming a monopoly within the market.

 

This has obviously lead to the charts being a hell of a lot slower than they used to be, but also more and more difficult for artists to get decent peaks for their songs (if this makes sense!)

 

So, I thought this could be improved by a reduction in the price of songs on iTunes. A standard 99p song could become 89p or even 79p. The 'discounted' songs could go from 59p to 49p or potentially 39p. I feel like this could revive this market and liven up the charts a bit.

 

What do you guys think?

Given the fall in the pound the pricing is surely more likely to go UP is it not?

I personally think 79p should be the standard price for a song on iTunes, and 59p the discounted price. I imagine sales would improve a fair bit if this happened, although iTunes might not make as much money from that so it's probably going to remain at 99p.

$1.29 (the US price) is exactly worth 99p at the moment. Given we used to pay the equivalent of $1.50 we are making iTunes a lot less money with each purchase at the moment.

When I first started using iTunes, most songs were 79p. It would be a nice way to boost digital sales a little, but I can't see it happening. 99p is the standard pricing across all digital retailers of music now (Google Play/Amazon Mp3 etc). Which, to be fair, is still cheaper than it used to cost to purchase a CD single.

 

Since streaming has picked up/taken off, I only buy songs that I either really like or to support an artist I really like. The rest I just stream via spotify/youtube - so even if the price of songs decreased, I'm not sure it'd have a big impact on people's spending habits.

It may provide a small shot in the arm but it wouldn't arrest the terminal decline as the listening habits of consumers are quickly changing and you can't reverse that process. It would be too little too late though I can't see it happening anyway.

Edited July 11, 20169 yr by gooddelta

$1.29 (the US price) is exactly worth 99p at the moment. Given we used to pay the equivalent of $1.50 we are making iTunes a lot less money with each purchase at the moment.

 

 

Bohoo! Poor Apple :D

 

We have to face the fact that the singles charts will actually start to reflect what people are listening to and not what they are buying.

expect to see £1.29 downloads on iTunes within the next 3/6 months~

expect to see £1.29 downloads on iTunes within the next 3/6 months~

 

And that's when the download market will plummet to being non existent!

Bit like when CDs went up to 3.99 lol

I really think that download prices will go down. Record companies will see this as a way of boosting releases to offset streaming - A bit like when CD singles were available for 2 for £3 in release week before changing to £2.99 each the following week. Without a doubt the success of 59p price reductions by the likes of Jonas Blue (He had peaked at #23 on iTunes and #38 officially before going to #1 after being reduced to 59p), Calum Scott (Peaked at #36 and dropped out of the official Top 40 before the price reduction), Dua Lupa (Charted at #44 before reduction) etc.,

expect to see £1.29 downloads on iTunes within the next 3/6 months~

Doubtful if they want to remain competitive in the market :P

I think they should go down. If all songs were 79p or 69p, we'd see a huge rise in download sales I'd expect. It'd be the only way to combat streaming' stronghold on the chart.

I'm fairly certain when iTunes first came out songs were set price at 69p or so and only later some went up to a pound or 79p, and some down to 59p. Anyway, I think they should definitely be allowed to reduce songs. Charts are literally a chart of what's selling (or streaming), reducing a song isn't 'cheating' when the chart literally is just a record of what's being consumed.

Not gonna happen I'm afraid, if people can't be bothered to buy a track for a pound a few pence reduced isnt going to change their mind. Music is cheapr by far than it has ever been in history, relative to income.

 

Today's young consumers are used to getting music for nothing, even 50p wouldnt convince more than a few to buy, and when you get to that price the artists will be making peanuts out of it, or the record companies will make peanuts, or both. They used to accept cheap lead-off singles for a week in the 90's to boost an album sales (Britney's One More Time was a massive first week sale cos it was a pound in a 3 to 4 pound market), so I can still see it as a promo tool, but not as a way of life.

 

 

 

 

Bumping this up to see other people's opinions.