While Apple are under pressure from consumer rights groups to reduce the price of downloads on the UK version of iTunes (to bring them in line with the prices on the French and German versions), others are mounting a bid to get them to increase prices. According to the Financial Times, EMI and Warner Music are both pushing the legitimate download platforms to consider increasing the price of downloads across the board.
Many inside labels fear that if mainstream download retailers like
Walmart in the US and Woolworths in the UK initiate a price war in the digital music space, that will eventually kick back on the record labels who will be pressured into reducing their per-track revenue. Meanwhile others still resent the fact that
Apple essentially set the rate record labels can expect to earn from download sales when they first launched iTunes. Others also point out that price points in the mobile music space - for both ring tones and mobile downloads - are higher.
Some execs wonder how long the market can sustain such price anomalies.
However
Apple, in particular, have always resisted attempts to raise the price point on their download sales. Last year the download platform wouldn't even alter its one-price-fits-all policy for the charity single 'Do They Know Its Christmas', which was retailing elsewhere for £1.49 (GBP) rather than iTunes' UK price of 79p per track.
But moves to increase download prices don't even have unanimous support across the music industry. Universal Music and SonyBMG are both said to be wary of price increases, fearing that altering prices now could negatively impact on legitimate download sales just as they are properly taking off.