Super excited for the release of the new Green Day album, I logged on to my favorite music service, Rhapsody, to stream the album and hear all the tracks. (Awesome, by the way)
Then, this morning, I went to buy MP3 versions of my favorite songs off the album. I log in to the Rhapsody MP3 page and see that every song is priced at 1.29 cents – a change recently sparked by iTunes that was followed suit by Walmart, Rhapsody, Amazon and others. Well, this sucks, but I was fine with it – I figured I would just buy one less song off the album.
Then, lo and behold, I notice on the Amazon MP3 site that they are selling all the songs for only 99 cents!
When this new pricing system was announced, we were told that the new pricing was being set by artists, and, at their request, certain popular music would be hiked to the new 1.29 price.
Now, sure, some of their pricing *kinda* lines up… but I still find out of every artist I look at, there are always songs that are cheaper at one over the other. Jamie Foxx has some songs/albums cheaper at Rhapsody, others at Amazon.
To be fair, there are many songs that the prices are the same on, such as Billy Joel’s album: The pricier tracks are the same on Rhapsody, and Amazon.
Rhapsody shows all the tracks by one of my favorite artists, Matchbox 20, at 1.29 – and yet Amazon is selling all the same tracks at .99!
The trend continues with the Black Eyed Peas as well.
So what is the point of this? I think that this new pricing system is a complete failure. The pricing should go back to the old way where EVERYONE sold music for 99 cents. This new system is OBVIOUSLY being abused by sellers such as Rhapsody. Stop ripping me off!
Overall, I have to say I am pretty frustrated and annoyed that the pricing changes we were told labels would set seem to be totally inconsistent. Amazon tends to have the lower price, while Rhapsody is charging the obscene price of 1.29 on their tracks. For now, im going back to Amazon for my music needs – where I just purchased the full album version of Green Day’s new album, 21st century breakdown. (And I saved $6.82 on buying the full album from Amazon compared to buying it from Rhapsody)
