iTunes song pricing policy spurns charity fundraiser

For iTunes users, this is a good thing. If Apple gives in once then it will start a precedent. Next thing you know there will be all sorts of songs popping up at different prices. No thanks. I prefer the single price model. Let's see, Apple only takes a few cents per song. If the artists and others want to donate, then there should be plenty left over for them to donate with. Instead of donating their own money, they want to raise the price and donate our money.

So millions of iPod owners won't be able to play these songs during Christmas because Apple isn't selling them? How exactly does that work?

Brilliant reporting there.

Umm, the artists don't get any money for this song. All of the proceeds from sales go to charity. That's kind of the point.

Anyway, I agree that Apple has to keep the single price model. Revenue of online sales may be reduced by 70%, but they probably should have signed the deal beforehand rather than assuming that Apple would go along with their terms. They might even have been able to convince Apple to give the full 79p collected instead of the "profits on £1.49", which probably would work out to about the same amount.

This article is terrible.

1) The opening sentence is false on its face, "THE Apple iTunes music store has refused to sell the charity Band Aid song Do They Know It’s Christmas? because it would damage the company’s dominance of the download market." They dominate the market & they're not selling it, but not selling it is certainly not a ploy to continue their dominance. The write makes it sound as if Apple is in favor of beating puppies, essentially.

2)"Millions of iPod owners will not be able to play the track over the Christmas period." Wrong again. They can still buy it via CD and rip it to iTunes. This one demonstrates bias & ignorance.

3)"The song cannot be made available for 79p because Band Aid must maximise the cash raised from each sale." This is just stupid. Of course it can be sold for 79p. And they don't have to do anything-- they seek to maximize the total amount of cash raised, and raising the per-sale price won't necessarily do that. They think 149p is the ideal price, but maybe not. And Band Aid CAN make it available for 79p, they have CHOSEN not to. This one is pure stupidity.

4) "Five million iPod players have now been sold." Well, more like 8 million according to this, http://forbes.com/personaltech/2004/10/15/cx_ah_1015tentech.html . Chalk this one up to laziness.

It's obvious that the writer here has an ulterior motive (pressuring Apple), but this is such a poorly written article that it's hard to believe it got published in a major newspaper.

Um, what? Millions of iPod owners won't be able to play that song? Excuse me? I'm an iPod owner, I have that song on my iPod, and every other iPod owner can have that song on their iPod too. There's about a million other ways to get songs besides the iTunes Music Store. This is some of the worst news reporting I've read in a long time.

Good for Apple to sticking to its pricing policy.

This is the worst-written article ever.

it's a shame, i was really hoping it would be released on itunes. won't be released in the states other than import, and while the original is a good track it's not worth $10+

Quote : So millions of iPod owners won't be able to play these songs during Christmas because Apple isn't selling them? How exactly does that work?

Brilliant reporting there.

Best quote of the day... Macnn is getting worse and worse...

Anyway, I don't see this as a problem, if you want to help buy the single, on a real CD and THEN put it on your ipod... Is it that hard?

I still feel there are a number of cases where the articles simply feel to PC like. Meaning that either a PC person wrote it and didn't give a frell about the Mac or a person who has NO IDEA what they are writing... It is really sad to see Macnn crumble like this... I have deleted my macnn bookmark as of today... So I will be spared of these idiotic articles...

I suggest you do the same, there are tons of other more dedicated Mac news sites out there who take reporting more seriously...

The writer of this article is an ANTI MAC BASTARD! GET OUT OF OUR COMMUNITY! NNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!