iTunes Variable Pricing is Shuffling the Charts
Posted 04/13/09 at 11:22:42 AM by Paul Lilly
It looks like iTunes' new variable pricing scheme isn't just shuffling money around inside everyone's wallets, but also has the iTunes Top 100 chart playing a game of leapfrog. The losers in this new game? The higher $1.29 tracks.
According to Billboard, on Wednesday the iTunes Top 100 chart had 40 songs priced at $1.29 and 60 with the original $0.99 price point. The songs selling for $1.29 slid, on average, 5.3 places on the chart, while the $0.99 tracks gained 2.5 chart positions. The trend continued on Thursday, with 53 songs priced at $0.99 rising an average of 1.66 places and 47 songs priced at $1.29 losing an average of 2 chart spots.
So far the changes have only been in chart position, but as Billboard points out, "a general idea of incremental changes in revenue can be reached. By looking at the unit sales of the most recent Soundscan top track downloads chart, the difference between chart positions can offer a view into how moving up and down the chart impacts revenue."
Thoughts on how the variable pricing structuring is affecting chart positions?
It's hard to say here.
Submitted by jcollins on Mon, 04/13/2009 - 10:06am
It's hard to say here. Personally, it won't really affect me for the most part. It been a while since I've bought top 40 music. For some reason, the vast majority has been Rap/hip hop, and that doesn't interest me at all, nor does the vast majority of what's up there. I wouldn't buy it at .69 a pop, much less .99 or 1.29...
However, to be honest, I won't be buying a song for 1.29. I see the .30 extra as being the "I'm a Moron" tax, and I won't pay it. The 1.29 version isn't 30 cents better than the .99 version, it's exactly the same. Music is a "want", not a "need", and in this economy, I'm not paying a moron tax for a "want".
In re. the shuffling around of the songs, I'm sure the music company accountants are paying close attention. My belief is that a lot of that is engineered (ie. promote such and such a song up the wazoo and it goes up). If a song they want in the top 40 is dropping due to price, they'll lower it to get it back up there.
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