Apple CEO Nixes iTunes Price Hike

Tue Sep 20, 7:53 AM ET



Apple Computer Inc. CEO Steve Jobs said Tuesday he would resist music companies' "greedy" demands for price increases on the iTunes music download site and warned that such a move would encourage piracy.

Jobs, speaking to reporters before the opening of the Apple Expo in Paris, acknowledged that some record companies were pushing him to raise the price of each song download, currently 99 cents on the U.S. iTunes site.

Record companies already make more profit by selling a song through iTunes than on a CD, with all the associated manufacturing and marketing costs, Jobs said.

"So if they want to raise the prices it just means they're getting a little greedy."

The Apple co-founder and CEO indicated he plans to stand firm. "We're trying to compete with piracy, we're trying to pull people away from piracy and say, 'You can buy these songs legally for a fair price,'" he said.

"But if the price goes up a lot, they'll go back to piracy. Then everybody loses."

Apple has sold about 22 million of its iPod digital music players and more than 500 million songs through the iTunes Music Store. The service accounts for 82 percent of all legally downloaded music in the United States.

At least someone was smart enough to figure that out. Record companies sure don't operate with common sense :rolleyes:

god I hate the record companies. I think 99 cents is too much for a MP3, and they wanna charge MORE?

I don't download music from iTunes. It would cost 99 cents.:( Bearshare and other programs such as Limewire would be much better than a 99 cent download.

I don't download music from iTunes. It would cost 99 cents.:( Bearshare and other programs such as Limewire would be much better than a 99 cent download.

I think the companies should create a monthly plan... one you can download and burn. It's bull to spend 99 cents for a MP3 when you can buy used cd's cheap and get much less than 99 cents a song. We have a place here called Half Price Books And Music and they have quite an extensive rotating selection of clearance cd's that go from $.25 to $2.00, and these are good titles! It's kinda funny that in the past they've had Madonna's Immaculate Collection and John Mellencamp's The Best That I Could Do for $1 used a piece.... That is less than a dime per song averaged out. You could get at least 14 hit songs on an actual cd that you can trade, sell, burn, etc... at the same price as you can DOWNLOAD one track and there's no resell value. I doubt somebody is going to do onto Ebay and sell off downloads they don't want anymore, lol. I think it's utter bull. MP3's are inferior to actually owning cd's and it should be a bit cheaper than $.99 a track.