Loading

Econ 101 And iTunes


Billboard Magazine had an article the other day showing that after iTunes introduced variable pricing (pricing songs at 69 cents, 99 cents & $1.29), people have responded by reducing their purchases of the more expensive songs, and increasing their purchases of the lower priced songs. While this may seem like a "no duh" type of conclusion, the thing that is interesting is that iTunes priced the most popular songs at the higher rate. People are responding more to the price of the song rather than the popularity of the song. According to Billboard:
On Wednesday, one day after the price increase, the iTunes Top 100 chart had 40 songs priced at $1.29 and 60 with the original $0.99 price point. The $1.29 songs lost an average of 5.3 places on the chart while the $0.99 songs gained an average of 2.5 chart positions.

Seven of Wednesday’s $1.29 songs had been priced at $0.99 on Tuesday (there were 33 songs priced at $1.29 on Tuesday morning). Those seven songs lost an average of 1.9 chart positions from Tuesday to Wednesday; one of them gained ground, eight lost position and one remained the same. The remaining 33 songs priced at $1.29, whose prices went unchanged from Tuesday to Wednesday, lost an average of 7.7 chart positions.

A similar trend was seen the following day. The 53 songs priced at $0.99 rose an average of 1.66 places on the chart; 24 rose on the chart, 18 dropped and 11 remained even. The 47 songs priced at $1.29 lost an average of two chart positions; 11 rose on the chart, 27 dropped and nine remained even. 

0 comments:

Post a Comment

The Patriot accepts anonymous comments [unlike the draconian editors at the Hatchet]. However, we strongly prefer that you USE A NAME. Mostly it's because we don't take anonymous comments seriously, but it's also because we hate bullshit. Have a nice day.

 

Smart. Witty. Irreverent.

Home | About | Authors | Contact | Magazine
Facebook | Twitter | RSS | Press | Join


We've got GW Covered.

GW Survival Guide | Live Blogs | Student Association
Tool Alert | Knapp Time | Conservatism


Sections

News | Opinion | Humor

Editorial Board

Editor in Chief

Will Frey

Senior Editor

Dan Keylin

Associate Editor

Tom Bird IV

Managing Editor

Hugo Scheckter