So, 48.6% of users are out. Frankly, I did not expect it.
48.6% of respondents are out. Not exactly scientific. But Apple should and will probably be glad to know about why those users either don't want to buy stuff there or how much they do but they live outside the US. I hope that 48.6% is at least sending feedback to Apple.
1. they need to drop the price of tracks. $1 per track is too high for people who can just DL them for free in the same time span.
2. variable pricing structure for different length tracks. they have 15 second bits that are $1. wtf. those should be a nickle. sometimes they're a bridge between songs, whatever. a 15 second track should never be $1.
3. in the case of Meddle (which i was going to buy). it's a cd with 6 tracks. $1 per track, up through echoes. (which is 23 min. long) you CAN'T BUY ECHOES. that's retarded. so it's $5 for the first 5 tracks, $12 for the CD. echoes costs $7. wtf.
4. better selection. (this is the only one i think will improve with time) it's still easier to find what you want online than it is at the Apple Store for music. although mom and pop would find the Apple way easier i'm sure.
3. in the case of Meddle (which i was going to buy). it's a cd with 6 tracks. $1 per track, up through echoes. (which is 23 min. long) you CAN'T BUY ECHOES. that's retarded. so it's $5 for the first 5 tracks, $12 for the CD. echoes costs $7. wtf.
Don't you have that already? I could give a lending hand...
1. they need to drop the price of tracks. $1 per track is too high for people who can just DL them for free in the same time span.
2. variable pricing structure for different length tracks. they have 15 second bits that are $1. wtf. those should be a nickle. sometimes they're a bridge between songs, whatever. a 15 second track should never be $1.
3. in the case of Meddle (which i was going to buy). it's a cd with 6 tracks. $1 per track, up through echoes. (which is 23 min. long) you CAN'T BUY ECHOES. that's retarded. so it's $5 for the first 5 tracks, $12 for the CD. echoes costs $7. wtf.
4. better selection. (this is the only one i think will improve with time) it's still easier to find what you want online than it is at the Apple Store for music. although mom and pop would find the Apple way easier i'm sure.
My understanding is Apple has to pay around 65 cents pre track to the labels. With that...they've got to make some money to pay for the infrastructure, the bandwidth, and actually make some money.
I have bought a few songs. I think it is great... I have yet to open any P2P program since the Music Store came out for several reasons:
> faster
> easier
> guaranteed to get what I want
> excellent quality
> it's LEGAL
> I enjoy supporting the artists I listen to but never really could before since I almost NEVER buy CDs...
> I will never buy another CD again (if it is offered at the Music Store) because I don't want all the plastic, jewel case, and other crap to take up space...
THIS IS GREAT!
Question to all: I hear people say $0.99 + tax but when I got my first music bill emailed to me it said tax: $0.00
Am I just living in the right state or is that a typo?
You got a bill mailed to you? I had to go through the account button in iTunews (top right) to get access to my purchase history. It included the tax info.
UPDATE: eMail bill came today. I was not charged sales tax!
Bizarre. I just checked my account info like you were talking about and I have two "groups" of purchases. The first one I got the email on and it still says $0 tax. The second set of purchases, however, did have tax....
2. variable pricing structure for different length tracks. they have 15 second bits that are $1. wtf. those should be a nickle. sometimes they're a bridge between songs, whatever. a 15 second track should never be $1.
3. in the case of Meddle (which i was going to buy). it's a cd with 6 tracks. $1 per track, up through echoes. (which is 23 min. long) you CAN'T BUY ECHOES. that's retarded. so it's $5 for the first 5 tracks, $12 for the CD. echoes costs $7. wtf.
Yeah, there are some oddities. I think they intentionally make one of the tracks unavailble individually if buying each song would be cheaper than buying the album. I guess it makes sense - lots of albums have maybe 3 or 4 tracks, and if they're 99¢ each, that's an awfully cheap album compared to what it would be in the store.
On the other hand, lots of albums have maybe 25 two-minute tracks, and it's much much cheaper to buy the album if you'd otherwise buy more than a few of the individual tracks (that is, if it's not a partial album ).
BTW, I found an album for $180. A complete Bill Evans recordings on Verve. 277 songs.
Here's an idea: Make the tracks equal to the proportion of the cost of the album they represent. So if an album is $15 in the store, and there are 15 tracks, make each track $1, and then sell the album at a discount (say $10). If an album has 3 tracks and is $15 in a store, then each track is $5 but again the whole album is $10. If an album has 30 tracks, make each track 50¢.
Could that work? I dunno, there are some oddities, but overall I guess the 99¢/each plan is simple and straightforward in most cases.
99 cents a track is fine. If you start varying the price you open the door for artists or labels to say "yeah, I want my song to be $1.75 instead"
Like someone else said elsewhere, if there is a 40 second track that you can't live without, then 99 cents is worth it. If you can live without it, then don't buy it.
I would definitely spend a lot of money at the store but alas, I have no credit card . Only one more year though!!! *turn 17 this June!!!* Honestly, whats better than supporting my favorite computer company and my favorite artists all at the same time?!?
I bought my first song last night and in the process moved from one statistical group to another. However, there doesn't seem to be a way to change my vote.
Quote:
Originally posted by BRussell
I think they intentionally make one of the tracks unavailble individually if buying each song would be cheaper than buying the album. I guess it makes sense - lots of albums have maybe 3 or 4 tracks, and if they're 99¢ each, that's an awfully cheap album compared to what it would be in the store.
I think it's quite annoying that certain tracks are available only with the whole album. Case in point: I was trying to think of a single song to test out the service. I didn't want to buy a whole album because I rarely use iTunes. I settled for Dirty Vegas' "Days Go By" from the popular commercial for the Mitsubishi Eclipse. Of course, "Days Go By" is only available with the full album. I bet the record company knew that people would only buy that one song from the commercial if they had the option. So they chose not to give buyers the option, and force them to buy the whole album for that one popular song.
I'm disappointed that I can't buy and Beatles or Madonna (yet). I'm less worried about Britney Spears.
I bought my first song last night and in the process moved from one statistical group to another. However, there doesn't seem to be a way to change my vote.
wait until the next poll.
thats bullshit... i can't believe that they don't have albums for download.... isnt that the POINT of this service....?
I just moved into the over $20 crowd. It's amazing how many odds and ends you can pick up with what I consider to be a very (understandably) incomplete collection. I'm still amazed by how much of it I would never have considered picking up otherwise -- not worth an album purchase nor the embarassment.
Comments
Originally posted by costique
The same poll at Mac Os X Hints. So far:
So, 48.6% of users are out. Frankly, I did not expect it.
48.6% of respondents are out. Not exactly scientific. But Apple should and will probably be glad to know about why those users either don't want to buy stuff there or how much they do but they live outside the US. I hope that 48.6% is at least sending feedback to Apple.
when it comes out for europe and windows...
i hope to see it grow exponentially because i think it will bepopular if people start to use it
1. they need to drop the price of tracks. $1 per track is too high for people who can just DL them for free in the same time span.
2. variable pricing structure for different length tracks. they have 15 second bits that are $1. wtf. those should be a nickle. sometimes they're a bridge between songs, whatever. a 15 second track should never be $1.
3. in the case of Meddle (which i was going to buy). it's a cd with 6 tracks. $1 per track, up through echoes. (which is 23 min. long) you CAN'T BUY ECHOES. that's retarded. so it's $5 for the first 5 tracks, $12 for the CD. echoes costs $7. wtf.
4. better selection. (this is the only one i think will improve with time) it's still easier to find what you want online than it is at the Apple Store for music. although mom and pop would find the Apple way easier i'm sure.
Originally posted by alcimedes
3. in the case of Meddle (which i was going to buy). it's a cd with 6 tracks. $1 per track, up through echoes. (which is 23 min. long) you CAN'T BUY ECHOES. that's retarded. so it's $5 for the first 5 tracks, $12 for the CD. echoes costs $7. wtf.
Don't you have that already? I could give a lending hand...
Originally posted by alcimedes
a few problems.
1. they need to drop the price of tracks. $1 per track is too high for people who can just DL them for free in the same time span.
2. variable pricing structure for different length tracks. they have 15 second bits that are $1. wtf. those should be a nickle. sometimes they're a bridge between songs, whatever. a 15 second track should never be $1.
3. in the case of Meddle (which i was going to buy). it's a cd with 6 tracks. $1 per track, up through echoes. (which is 23 min. long) you CAN'T BUY ECHOES. that's retarded. so it's $5 for the first 5 tracks, $12 for the CD. echoes costs $7. wtf.
4. better selection. (this is the only one i think will improve with time) it's still easier to find what you want online than it is at the Apple Store for music. although mom and pop would find the Apple way easier i'm sure.
My understanding is Apple has to pay around 65 cents pre track to the labels. With that...they've got to make some money to pay for the infrastructure, the bandwidth, and actually make some money.
$.99 a song is great, I think.
> faster
> easier
> guaranteed to get what I want
> excellent quality
> it's LEGAL
> I enjoy supporting the artists I listen to but never really could before since I almost NEVER buy CDs...
> I will never buy another CD again (if it is offered at the Music Store) because I don't want all the plastic, jewel case, and other crap to take up space...
THIS IS GREAT!
Question to all: I hear people say $0.99 + tax but when I got my first music bill emailed to me it said tax: $0.00
Am I just living in the right state or is that a typo?
You got a bill mailed to you? I had to go through the account button in iTunews (top right) to get access to my purchase history. It included the tax info.
UPDATE: eMail bill came today. I was not charged sales tax!
It said bill paid-in-full and listed the songs I purchased, price, and then tax (which was 0).
I have since ordered more songs but have not gotten a bill for them.
Strange.
Originally posted by alcimedes
2. variable pricing structure for different length tracks. they have 15 second bits that are $1. wtf. those should be a nickle. sometimes they're a bridge between songs, whatever. a 15 second track should never be $1.
3. in the case of Meddle (which i was going to buy). it's a cd with 6 tracks. $1 per track, up through echoes. (which is 23 min. long) you CAN'T BUY ECHOES. that's retarded. so it's $5 for the first 5 tracks, $12 for the CD. echoes costs $7. wtf.
Yeah, there are some oddities. I think they intentionally make one of the tracks unavailble individually if buying each song would be cheaper than buying the album. I guess it makes sense - lots of albums have maybe 3 or 4 tracks, and if they're 99¢ each, that's an awfully cheap album compared to what it would be in the store.
On the other hand, lots of albums have maybe 25 two-minute tracks, and it's much much cheaper to buy the album if you'd otherwise buy more than a few of the individual tracks (that is, if it's not a partial album
BTW, I found an album for $180. A complete Bill Evans recordings on Verve. 277 songs.
Here's an idea: Make the tracks equal to the proportion of the cost of the album they represent. So if an album is $15 in the store, and there are 15 tracks, make each track $1, and then sell the album at a discount (say $10). If an album has 3 tracks and is $15 in a store, then each track is $5 but again the whole album is $10. If an album has 30 tracks, make each track 50¢.
Could that work? I dunno, there are some oddities, but overall I guess the 99¢/each plan is simple and straightforward in most cases.
Like someone else said elsewhere, if there is a 40 second track that you can't live without, then 99 cents is worth it. If you can live without it, then don't buy it.
Originally posted by CosmoNut
You forgot to add the following to the poll:
"I'm a loser and still use OS 9, so I'm not eligible. $0"
may as well be a windows user
I'll make a new poll when this one closes that will have OS 9 and "I steal music instead" as options...
Originally posted by BRussell
I think they intentionally make one of the tracks unavailble individually if buying each song would be cheaper than buying the album. I guess it makes sense - lots of albums have maybe 3 or 4 tracks, and if they're 99¢ each, that's an awfully cheap album compared to what it would be in the store.
I think it's quite annoying that certain tracks are available only with the whole album. Case in point: I was trying to think of a single song to test out the service. I didn't want to buy a whole album because I rarely use iTunes. I settled for Dirty Vegas' "Days Go By" from the popular commercial for the Mitsubishi Eclipse. Of course, "Days Go By" is only available with the full album. I bet the record company knew that people would only buy that one song from the commercial if they had the option. So they chose not to give buyers the option, and force them to buy the whole album for that one popular song.
I'm disappointed that I can't buy and Beatles or Madonna (yet). I'm less worried about Britney Spears.
Escher
Originally posted by Escher
I bought my first song last night and in the process moved from one statistical group to another. However, there doesn't seem to be a way to change my vote.
wait until the next poll.
thats bullshit... i can't believe that they don't have albums for download.... isnt that the POINT of this service....?
g