Isn't odd that Amazon was able to secure a lower price point than iTunes and be without DRM for all this time? You would think Apple, with their dominance of both hardware and software sides of the market, would have had more leverage. Even worse though is that Amazon quickly followed with variable pricing themselves, though their total albums are still cheaper for the most part. Just sucks, but I'll continue to purchase CDs for the time being.

You can almost hear millions of Limewire apps spinning up in the background...

People still pay money for music??? how last century.

With the RIAA driving Apple's bus (at least for the moment), we'll likely see the 1.49$ tier very soon, and the great majority of content will slowly drift up from .99 to 1.29. Then hot singles will drift up into 1.49. Once we're settled there, do it again with 1.69$!!

It's exactly what happened with CDs. Giving the same group of people control over a similar system and expecting new results pretty much defines 'stupid'.

Just in time for the Great Depression II. Nice move.

How is this situation not a violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act?

I wonder if this will give indie lables a chance to distinguish themselves, by allowing their bands to charge almost 50% less for their music.

This is getting dumb. I'm all for supporting artists and paying, but don't the labels understand people will pay for the music, until they start screwing us?

- Pandora forced to stop streaming outside the US
- iTunes charging more per song
- Last.fm not being able to stream outside the US, Uk and Germany. Limited mobile streaming. iPhone client doesn't work outside the above three countries.

I was about to purchase a Last.fm subscription until I realized that the mobile client doesn't work in Canada.

Anyone noticed that itunes had only one free 'song' (a music video) instead of the usual 3 (song of the week, discovery of the week, spanish song of the week)?

Most of the albums that I have bought recently have been $8 on iTunes instead of $10. I guess it's the other people who are getting the short end of the stick on this deal.