Universal Music has said it is cutting the price of digital versions of 1500 back catalogue albums. The major will make the selected albums available to European download platforms at a lower price, and it hopes that those platforms will pass on the savings directly to consumers, who could pay in the region of £2.50 less to download albums included in the price cut.
The move is being seen as a way to encourage the growing number of digital music buyers to [a] buy digital versions of back catalogue and [b] buy whole albums rather than individual tracks. The move follows noticeable trends in the digital music space - ie that many MP3 player owners are ripping tracks off their CD collections rather than re-purchasing them via download platforms, and that in the download age people are more likely to pick and choose a couple of tracks rather than buy a whole album. Universal are presumably hoping that the price cut will make it more cost effective to buy a whole album rather than a few tracks, and cheap enough that people will pay to download old albums, rather than go to the (actually, not all that great) hassle of ripping the tracks off CD.
The move will not affect the price of single track purchases which, of course, remain a bit contentious - given that Apple continue to resist attempts by the record labels to introduce more flexibility in single track pricing (where the one price fits all model prevails).
Commenting on the price cut move, Universal Music International's marketing chief Max Hole told CMU: "As the leading online record company, we are totally committed to expanding and developing the digital music market. The promise of the internet has always been about making it easier for people to access music in new ways and at affordable prices, and that's what we are aiming to achieve."