iGouging

As we all know, Steve Jobs is trying to rule the world (or in his vision, what is soon to be iEarth) but he just might be losing touch with the consumers as he makes them lose touch with their wallets, in a move that is decent in theory but terrible in execution. Everyone knows what iTunes is so I'm going to spare the typical long-winded description and get right to the matter at hand. Mr. Jobs has decided to introduce what is called Variable Pricing. This new pricing structure will reprice tracks at $0.69, $0.99, and $1.29 based on the song's popularity. The beneficiaries of this new system would seem to be those tight-flannel-shirt-wearing, Parliament-Light-smoking indie kids whose iTunes bills should be going down depending on just how indie they really are (Crooked Fingers, anyone?). 

Now the question remains: Just how does one know the popularity of a certain song, and at what level does the pricing go down/up? Well, Apple isn't leaving you in the dark to guess as to how popular a track is, they've provided a popularity meter that is filled according to, you guessed it, the song's popularity. And as to the question of what level of popularity constitutes a price change, it's not what you'd think. Now, keep in mind, I don't use iTunes (I far prefer MediaMonkey) so I had to go to someone else's computer in order to check out this foolishness, but from what I saw there, and in other accounts of this travesty, a song is $1.29 even when the meter is just over half full. 

As for the price drops, this is where Apple fails miserably. In my (admittedly not as extensive as it should have been) explorations, it was extremely difficult to find a song for $0.69. A search for the aforementioned Crooked Fingers (first band that came to mind, don't give me shit for it) turned up a whopping ZERO price-dropped tracks despite having nothing in the popularity meter. Trolling around elsewhere and seeing what other people have said, many have had the same problem, with a site calling out for readers to comment back with any tracks they find for the reduced price, and out of 36 comments, there was only one found: I'll Fly Away by Kanye West (wtf?). Now far from polishing my guns for a militant outburst aimed at Mr. Jobs, I just set here, dumbfounded by this (kinda, maybe, not so) good idea gone wrong, and I feel for those many of you whose iTunes bills are going to rise. If nothing else, Steve-O is giving Amazon's music store a bit of a leg up.

*If you find a plethora of tracks for $0.69 please let me know.

Vaya con Dios