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29p music tracks could herald price war
08 Apr 2009 | 15.00 Europe/London
Amazon has slashed the price of some of its bestselling MP3s in a move that’s being seen as the first real challenge to Apple's dominance of the online music market. The online retailer is charging just 29p for 100 of its songs – from current chart successes by the likes of Lily Allen to classic anthems like Wonderwall by Oasis. Select tracks from genres spanning pop, hip-hop, jazz and classical will be available at the knock-down price.
Apple, which controls around 70 per cent of music downloads at the moment, recently announced it was putting up the price of some songs. It's just introduced new pricing bands on iTunes: 59p, 79p and 99p. This means a small number of the ten million tracks it has up for sale will now be 70p cheaper on the Amazon site, such as Poker Face by Lady GaGa. iTunes has refused to comment on whether it could be drawn into a price war.
Amazon launched its UK music download service in December last year and currently has around five million tracks available to buy. "Until this point Amazon have been something of a sleeping giant," music industry analyst Mark Mulligan from Forrester Research told The Guardian. But he says just having a handful of 29-pence songs isn't going to make a big difference: "If Amazon are going to compete they are going to have to throw everything at iTunes or they just won't make a dent. Even if they are cheaper it will take time to change people's habits and it is still that bit more inconvenient."
While a price war would be good news for consumers, not everyone's happy songs are becoming cheaper and cheaper to get hold of. Musician Calvin Harris, who made it into the top five last weekend, is one of them. "Good Lord just saw you can get it at Tesco's for 57p," he wrote on Twitter. "That track took me 2 years! 57p! 2 years! 57p! No wonder music's on it's arse."
[ The Guardian ]
Apple, which controls around 70 per cent of music downloads at the moment, recently announced it was putting up the price of some songs. It's just introduced new pricing bands on iTunes: 59p, 79p and 99p. This means a small number of the ten million tracks it has up for sale will now be 70p cheaper on the Amazon site, such as Poker Face by Lady GaGa. iTunes has refused to comment on whether it could be drawn into a price war.
Amazon launched its UK music download service in December last year and currently has around five million tracks available to buy. "Until this point Amazon have been something of a sleeping giant," music industry analyst Mark Mulligan from Forrester Research told The Guardian. But he says just having a handful of 29-pence songs isn't going to make a big difference: "If Amazon are going to compete they are going to have to throw everything at iTunes or they just won't make a dent. Even if they are cheaper it will take time to change people's habits and it is still that bit more inconvenient."
While a price war would be good news for consumers, not everyone's happy songs are becoming cheaper and cheaper to get hold of. Musician Calvin Harris, who made it into the top five last weekend, is one of them. "Good Lord just saw you can get it at Tesco's for 57p," he wrote on Twitter. "That track took me 2 years! 57p! 2 years! 57p! No wonder music's on it's arse."
[ The Guardian ]