Thanks go to Pipemanid, who spotted an irritating but important story over at the Register. A quick visit will reveal that at least some labels are thinking that it's time to hike the cost of DRM loaded lossy music. We knew it was coming, as soon as they figured enough people were off P2P and also there had to be a nice base of hardware toting public.
Some labels aren't too hot on the idea for fear that it will cause a backlash with the public and they will run in droves back to P2P. While other labels are contemplating variable pricing that would charge more for new or very popular releases.
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According to the article, the music industry has also noticed that Apple has about 65 percent of the market share due to the success of the iPod and they don't like it. With newer, smaller, cheaper iPods hitting the streets, they expect that Apple will even capture additional percentage of the business.
If the labels cause the price of music downloads to break the 99 cent barrier, it could well create a justification to at least think about sharing again. Add to this issue the fact that Friday, the European Commission has let it be known that they are investigating allegations that British consumers are being ripped off by Apple's iTunes service. The complaint states that the UK iTunes charges more for downloads than it does for similar products elsewhere around the globe. Another complaint is that folks there in the UK are locked in to buying from the UK sites and are not allowed to visit other iTunes sites in the world that would offer the same product for less.
You may wish to express your feelings in this thread started by Pipemanid in our Music Downloads, Peer-to-Peer (P2P) & Legal Issues Forum.
Source: The Register
