I have fond memories of getting a beautiful red record player for Christmas one year when I was in elementary school. It wasn’t the cool one that only played the record when you closed the lid (my Mom and Dad never were into the newest gadgets) but instead a sturdy, practical piece of plastic machinery, most likely gotten from J.C. Penney’s.
Single records (45 rpms) cost $2.09 (with tax) at the local Ben Franklin or Woolworth’s store. (Both chains are now out of business.) The $2 record bought you two tunes-a hit on one side and a song you rarely played on the other. The B side of the record was really just merchandising-thrown in as having some perceived value, but nothing you would actually pay for. Every Saturday, my friend Wilma (yes, Wilma) and I would walk downtown to buy a new record. We were cool.
Today, I’d guess most families with children of a certain age had an iPod under their tree this Christmas-unless that gift had already been given as a birthday present. One song downloaded to an iPod costs 99 cents. Thus, the price of one song today is either half of what it was in the 1970s (if you don’t count the B side of the record) or it’s about the same (if you split the $2 between the hit A-side single and the miss B-side single).
In other words, digital music pricing makes no sense. So you can see why the recording industry is pressuring iPod-maker Apple Computer Inc. to change its pricing structure to one where people pay more to download more popular music and less to download obscure music. It’s a pricing structure that values some content more than other-which makes sense, especially when you consider the price of a single hasn’t moved much in three decades.
Today there are more venues than ever for music lovers-from CD players to iPods to cell phones. Indeed, the wireless industry has benefited significantly from ringtone downloads, which average about $2.50 each, according to NPD Group. Meanwhile, wireless carriers and handset manufacturers are venturing into deeper music waters: Sprint Nextel Corp. is selling full-track downloads at $2.50 a pop, a price that promises to be undercut by MVNO Amp’d Mobile once it fully launches service; Motorola has teamed with Apple to sell a handset-iPod hybrid; and it looks like Verizon may team with Microsoft Corp. to offer a full-track music service.
Digital is quickly becoming the medium of choice for music lovers, and mobile music is already driving the space. But until pricing issues (and DRM) are addressed in the music market, wireless might be stuck with the humdrum ringtone for the foreseeable future.
